People always come and go
by Renoops
Summary: Chapter update: Will Jack and Samantha finally give into temptation or will they be able to stop themselves from getting carried away, whilst others try and make or break their own relationships MOC/JS/DOC
1. Start of a new life

I own none of the actually WAT characters

**Authors note:** Okay so this is my first story on here, basically it's set little after the end of season one. Jack employs a new agent. The first few chapters are more focused on her just so you get what she's like or her background. Anyway hopefully it will get better I'm just trying to get this part out of the way so I can get to the good stuff, please review so I can see what you all think

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Caitlin pulled the last box from her car trunk and placed it onto the street floor, then slammed the door shut and locked it up tight. She walked into the elevator and pressed for floor nine, then waited patiently for the ding. She arrived on the floor then walked down the hallway to her new apartment, number twenty-three. The door was open and she saw her father moving a few cardboard boxes around the room.

"This all of it?" He asked looking up from the brown box labelled clothes in black marker.

"I got the last box" she said placing it on the kitchen counter.

The apartment was large and spacious. It was an open lounge come kitchen with a large window in the centre revealing an amazing picture of the city and some of the water beyond the buildings in front of hers. There was a bathroom which contained a tub, a separate shower unit, sink, toilet and a wall mirror. Then there was two bedrooms, one opposite the bathroom down the hall which were also a fair size having a built in closet to the far wall, and the other at the end of the hall which was more or less the same size. She smiled looking around a place which was her own, a place she could finally call hers, no longer living with anyone else, except her room mate. Her dad looked at his daughter with a slight smile on his face.

"It's not too late to change your mind you know. Come back home with me this afternoon" he said wrapping his arms around her "It's going to be quiet back there without you"

"Your life's never going to be quiet dad, you're a fed, besides your not going to notice me being gone that much anyway, your always at work and when your ever home I'm at work." She replied pulling away from him.

He looked at his watch and rubbed his forehead.

"Speaking of work, I have to go. I only managed to get till 7 tonight off, and if I'm gonna make it back by then…"

"You have to go now" she interrupted "I understand"

"I know you do. You sure you don't wanna come back to D.C with me?"

She laughed "I'm sure, but you never know, New York City might not be what I expected"

"I don't mind, what ever makes you happy and if being a federal officer like you old man does that for you…"

She interrupted again "It does" she said nodding her head

"Then if being in New York is what you have to do, then so be it. Just call me once in a while so I know that your ok"

"I will. Thank you for coming here with me, helping me find this place"

"It's was fathers do, you're my little girl. Of course I understand, we have a family member in nearly every kind of law enforcement there is. Me director of the FBI you yourself an FBI, both my brothers in the secret service. Your brother David also an FBI in L.A and Paul and Ant…"

She interrupted him again "Paul's not exactly in law enforcement, he's a marine and Ant are well yeh a Marshall is law enforcement I guess"

"Paul called a few days ago, his times up soon and he's thinking of applying for NCIS"

"Why? He loves being a marine"

"Yeah, but he can't do it for ever and if he waits too long he won't find a decent enough job when he comes out because he'll be too old"

"You mean like you?" she said with a cheeky smile.

"When's Michelle arriving here, she back from her flight yet?"

She looked at her watch "She left for her flight yesterday night, so she should be in Moscow by now, then she has a day of there and then she's flying back, so she'll be here in a few days I guess"

He gave her one more hug and headed for the door.

"I love you, now be good and work hard at your new job, I'll be calling Agent Malone in a few days" He said with a small smile.

"I love you too dad".

He took one last glance, then gently closed the door behind him. He was about to begin his long car journey home to Washington D.C. whereas she was already home, at her new home, a place she could finally call her own. A smile grew upon her face and she rested her hands on her hips and looking around the apartment and the boxes wondering where to start. After a few minutes of thinking she decided on starting with the bedroom as she'd need that first, if the kitchen wasn't ready she'd call out for her first New York take-away. She pulled off her jacket and rolled up her sleeves, then picked up and box and carried it into her new bedroom. She spent the next few hours unpacking, putting away, fitting her mattress with fresh sheets. Her watch read 10pm. Her bedroom was finished, well the boxes were unpacked, the books and films were stacked in a corner, jackets and coats on the floor by the door and a few other random things from home. She sat on the floor and leant against the kitchen counter, she had no furniture yet so she couldn't sit on a sofa, watch TV stack books on a bookshelf, put a mattress on a bed nothing. All she did have was a bed and a clothes wardrobe. She grabbed the phone from the kitchen unit above her head and dialled the number she had took from a Chinese take away she had passed earlier. The man on the other end of the phone said the food would be about a half hour so she found out a clean towel and hopped into the shower. She washed her hair and body then climbed back out again wrapping a towel around her body and one around her hair. She walked back through the living room come kitchen and opened the door to the ringing doorbell. She gave the delivery man the $30 he needed then shut the door as he turned to leave. She placed the food on a cardboard box and pulled a beer from the fridge, she'd brought a whole pack down from home and sat on the floor enjoying her Chinese and beer.

She lay on the mattress staring at the ceiling, all the lights from the street flashing in on her room, they had no blinds nor curtains yet either. She closed her eyes to try and get some sleep when her cell started to ring and flash on the floor next to her. She flipped it opened and answered.

"Hello?" she said with a croaky voice before clearing her throat with a small cough.

"Hey, it's me, are you in our flat yet?" the voice on the other end asked

It was her room mate to be, a long time friend, one she had known since she was about 5 years old. They both decided to move out to New York together when Caitlin got the job offer out here. Michelle was an air hostess, and was meant to be arriving home in the next few days.

"Hey Michelle, yeh I'm in it"

"What's it like, is it nice? Big? Good view?"

"Yeh it's good"

"What floor"

"Erm… eleven I think"

"You don't know what floor your on?"

"Well my brain doesn't exactly think well at two in the morning"

"Oh sorry it that the time over there, anyway you're going furniture shopping tomorrow right?"

"Yeh I should be why?"

"Because I wrote a list of things I want you to order for me okay, it's in the box with all my DVD's"

"I'll sort it"

"Okay great, I'll see you in a tomorrow night"

Caitlin snapped the phone shut then shut her eyes again, this time slowly drifting off to sleep.

Her cell phone rang again, she opened her eyes slowly and stretched her arms, then answered the phone

"Yeh?"

"Hey, it's me again look I've arrived in D.C so I'm gonna grab a few things from my parents then I'll drive down. I'll be there in a few hours okay"

"I thought u weren't arriving back in the US until like six this evening?" Kate answered rubbing sleep from her eyes. Then she closed them again and rolled onto her side and listened to her friend."

"My flight left an hour early so I arrived here at five"

When Caitlin heard this she sat up and looked outside. "Please tell me you mean you arrived at five am"

"No five pm. It's half past now"

"Damn it" Caitlin said crawling to her feet

"Why?" Michelle asked

"I overslept a little" she said

"You mean you've been asleep since 2am this morning from when I last called you?"

"Kind of"

"So you haven't done our furniture shopping?"

"Not exactly"

"Great" Michelle said sarcastically on the other end

"I'm sorry" Kate replied

"Look don't worry about it, I'll see you in a bit" then the line when dead.

Caitlin closed her eyes and knocked her head against the wall and called her self stupid. She got dressed and spent the next few hours walking around the city getting familiar with her new surroundings. She passed the FBI unit whilst out. She stood outside the doors for a few minutes looking in. it seemed busier then where she had worked back in D.C. A security guard walked up to her. He was in his fifties, black skin and a grey moustache above his upper lip.

"Can I help you?" he asked studying her.

She smiled at him "No thank you I was just looking"

"For anything in particular?" his voice was low and husky, yet had warmth about it which made him seem kind and friendly.

"No" she looked at the building one more time then turned and walked off. It was dark now, as she expected for nine o'clock at night. She had an early start in the morning. She had to be in for 8 o'clock, which meant she wasn't going to get much sleep tonight as she slept in incredibly late this morning. She made her way back to her apartment and saw a familiar car parked next to hers on the street, Michelle's car.

She got the lift up to the eleventh floor and opened the door to the apartment. Inside she saw Michelle filling the fridge with food.

"You stopped for food on your way here?" Kate asked smiling and chucking her keys on the kitchen unit.

"Well something told me you wouldn't have done any yet." She returned the smile

"What you think of the place?"

"I like it, a lot" she replied.

"Good flight?" Kate asked pulling a beer from the, now fully stocked fridge. Then sat on a box of books.

"Pretty good minus one pervert trying to look up everyone's skirts"

They spent the next few hours talking then finally went to bed. Caitlin lay there again thinking about the next day, her first day at her new job. She wondered what the people would be like, what her boss would be like. If her dad had done anything to get her the job. All her life her dad had made sure she had gotten what she wanted but she wanted to do this on her own. She wanted to prove to not only him but herself that she was capable or more then messing things up. She picked up her watch, it said 3am. She lay there still trying to sleep, she closed her eyes, opened a window to let fresh air in, tried counting to a thousand, made hot milk and she was back in bed. She looked at her watch again. It said 6:23am…


	2. First impressions

**Author's note: **I tried to keep the feeling of the show with including an actual case, it's not the best but its the best i could come up with.

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"I guess I'm not getting any sleep tonight then" she said to herself then rolled off the mattress onto the floor and to her feet.

She opened the fridge and pulled out the milk, got the coffee and sugar from the cupboards then looked for the kettle. They didn't have one yet so she searched for a pan to boil the water in. Luckily she had one unusually large pan. She put a drop of water in then let it heat on the stove whilst she got changed into black boots, grey trousers and light pink shirt with a white camisole underneath. She came out from the bedroom and the water was boiling she grabbed a mug from one of the boxes and put some coffee and sugar into the mug and then tipped the pan slightly to get the water into the mug. She missed the mug altogether and poured the hot water all over the kitchen units and floor, just missing herself. She sighed and searched for a spare towel in the boxes. All she could find was the towel she had used the previous night.

"This will have to do for now", she lay the towel on the floor and let it soak up the water and give up on the coffee. She glanced at her watch again, which this time read 7:34am. This meant she had to leave now if she at least wanted to be on time. She fished through the opened box in her room and picked up her FBI I.D card and her badge. She hadn't been given her new gun yet, this she would receive when she arrived. She picked up a long black coat from the floor and swung it around her shoulders buttoning up the front on her way out.

It was cold outside, the wind blew her hair across her face and instantly froze her ears and nose. It was late autumn, nearing the end of October, and only growing colder by the day. She jumped into her car and started up the engine. She gave it a few minutes to warm then pulled out from her car parking space and out of the underground parking. She drove onto the street and made her way downtown to work. She pulled up outside the building and found a space a little further down the street. Caitlin turned off her engine and exited the car locking it after shutting the door. She left her black BMW X3 on the street and entered the FBI unit building. She walked up to reception and told them she was new and the woman at the desk informed her that she had to go firearms unit where she would be issued with a gun.

"and where exactly would that be?" Caitlin asked

"go down the hall and take the third door to your left, go down one flight of stairs and enter the second door to your right" she was old but seemed nice enough.

"Thank you" Caitlin replied with a smile then made her way to her new piece. Here she found an older man, short, fat bald.

"What can I do for you?" he asked sitting behind a metal gate

"I'm the new agent, here to pick up a gun" she said politely.

He pulled out a piece of paper and scanned down it "Agent Caitlin

Valentine?"

"Yep, that's me"

"You got any proof?" he asked

"Sorry?" she wasn't sure what he meant by that

"Proof of who you are"

"Oh, you mean my FBI I.D card?"

He nodded and didn't seem impressed that she was a bit slow to catch onto what he was saying. "Yeh sure" she continued.

She pulled out her card and showed it to the man, who looked at the picture and then her checking that they were the same. Then he got up and disappeared into the back room and shut the door behind him. She stood waiting a few minutes then sat on a chair that was against the wall behind her. Another ten minutes passed and the man finally arrived back with a handgun, a hip holster and a strap which goes around the shoulders to hold the guns in if you preferred them to be there. Before he handed them over he gave her a piece of paper and a pen.

"Sign here" he said plainly

"Okay" she took the pen and signed the paper and handed it back to him. Then he handed over the objects.

"Welcome to the New York FBI division, you'll find Agent Jack Malone on floor seven and don't worry, he's a good man" then he finally smiled

"Thanks" she said returning his smile.

She held onto what she had just been given in one hand then used the other to open the doors as she made her way up the flights of stairs. She could have taken the elevator but she saw no point as she was already on the stairs.

She finally made it to the seventh floor and opened the doorway from the stairs out onto it. The door shut behind her and she looked around at her new work environment. It was nice, large glass walls, wooden desks and tables, leather chairs and full of agents and workers just like her. She walked down the centre of the floors looking for any sign of an Agent Jack Malone. She found an office belonging to Supervisory special agent Malone but there was no one inside.

She stopped a passing man "Excuse can you tell me where I can find an Agent Malone?" she asked

He smiled and nodded "Sure Malone and his team are over on that big table over there" he answered pointing ahead by the window.

"Thanks" she said

"You new here?" he asked

"From today"

"Welcome aboard" he said and walked off.

She smiled to herself, it was a pretty good start nice people, then she looked at her watch which said little gone twenty past eight, minus the being late she thought to herself. She still had her gun and holsters in her hand and walked over to the table she had been directed to, about halfway there she didn't see a small bin in front of her, her foot hit the bin and she lost her balance completely. The bin skidded and she went to the floor throwing her gun and holsters across the floor. Jack Malone's team sitting at the table all stopped their conversation and turned to see a young woman lying on the floor. The two women from the team got from their chairs and rushed over to her. Kate lay on her back for a few seconds before she saw two females towering over her.

"Are you ok?" The smaller darker woman asked

Kate scrunched her face in pain and gently rubbed the back of her head, which she had just smacked on the ground.

"Yeh, I'm good. I just a few seconds" she replied

The slightly taller blonde woman offered her hand out.

"Come on" she said kindly.

Kate tried a small smile and took the hand which hauled her back up to her feat.

The smaller woman bent down and picked up her two holsters and passed them to her. Kate realised there was no gun and quickly scanned the floor for it. Then she saw the bottom of it sticking out from under the big centre table. She quickly walked up to it and bent under the table. The two younger men sat there and looked at each with an eyebrow raised at the new woman who was under the table. Then all of the sudden two hands appeared on the table with a gun in one. Then they hauled up the rest of her body and she stood up straight and was so embarrassed she had to fake a smile. The two women returned to their seats at the table and the whole group looked at her. Jack Malone, who hadn't said anything yet, studied her for a moment.

She was a dark brunette, slim, looked around 5ft5, long straight hair, no fringe, big blue eyes, very pretty, holding a gun and holsters in her hand, his new agent.

She suddenly felt nervous with all eyes on her.

"You my new agent?" he asked still studying her

"That's me" she replied shrugging her shoulders slightly.

"Take a seat" he instructed. She did as she was told and sat opposite him. Then he introduced the group to her going around the table.

"This is Danny Taylor"

He was a good looking guy, black spiky hair. Probably had no trouble getting a girlfriend when he wanted one. Looked like he was funny kind of guy that could make you laugh in a tough situation.

Next across was a "Martin Fitzgerald".

Name instantly rung a bell in her head. Fitzgerald was the name of the Deputy Director of the FBI, he worked with her father who she had met a numerous amount of times, not always on a good occasion, normally when she had gotten into trouble along the lines of her FBI duties, meaning Martin was probably his son. He was defiantly another good looking agent, looked intelligent, cute, just along as he wasn't too much like his father she was sure they'd get along great.

"Then we have Vivian Johnson"

she looked older then the others, about Jack's age. She looked very kind, a caring person. She could see Vivian dealing with the more emotional cases. Probably married, had a kid or two.

Finally the other side of Caitlin was "Samantha Spade".

Extremely pretty blonde. Kate wasn't really sure what to make of Samantha at first. She looked like a kind person but at the same time some one who was really focused on her job, some one that would do extremely well in her job.

"Everybody this is our new team member Special Agent Caitlin Valentine" Jack continued. "Moved from Washington D.C to work with us."

Danny Taylor interrupted him "Hang on a minute, Valentine as in Director of the FBI's daughter?"

"Yeh" she replied "Kinda like Fitzgerald, son of FBI deputy director Fitzgerald, right?" she asked looking towards Martin.

"Right" Martin confirmed, he seemed like he didn't need to be reminded of it.

"Anyway, now that's she's finally here we can get started. A woman named Victoria Hodgkin went missing last night on her way to work, according to her boyfriend she left the apartment little before 7pm, but never made it to work. He called it in earlier this morning. Work figured she'd skipped another shift but she never made it home either. I want us to separate into three groups. Vivian and I will go to her parents house, interview them see what we can find out. Sam I want you and Danny to go to her work, see if she was having any problems with customers or colleagues. Martin, you and Valentine go to her apartment, take a look around, interview her boyfriend. Anything interesting give me a call."

He turned to walk away then stopped as he pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it over to Caitlin. "It's a list of all the numbers you'll need, all of us, the unit itself, forensics, S.W.A.T, backup, things like that."

She scanned the paper and folded it up "okay, thanks"

He stood there waiting for her to do something then she clicked "Oh you want mine too?"

"It would be helpful, that way we can call you too"

Taylor and Fitzgerald looked at each other and smirked. She ignored them and scribbled down her cell and home number on a sheet and handed it back to him. He nodded as he took it then put on his jacket and headed away from the table towards the elevator. Vivian followed him and Samantha and Danny paired off together. Martin sat at the table waiting for Kate to get ready.

He watched her take her coat off and fasten her hip holster onto her belt then insert the gun into it, next to it looked like a small leather case which most probably held some kind of pocket knife, on the other side of her belt was her badge and her cell. She picked up her shoulder holster and looked around wondering where to put it. She looked at the desks and wasn't sure which one was hers, or if she even had one.

"Do I have a desk?" she asked.

"Next to mine, the front corner one is mine, yours is the other corner desk linked up to it. The one that has nothing on it but a computer might of gave you a hint" he replied

"Right, of course" she looked at the floor and walked over to her desk chucked the shoulder holster into the top draw which would do for now. Then back over to the centre table and put her long coat back on.

She stood there and looked at Martin "You ready now?" he asked raising his eyebrows.

"Waiting on you" she replied.

"Lets go then" he said standing up, grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair and they headed for the elevator.

"That wasn't the best first impression I could have had was it?" she asked wondering if she group already thought she was some kind of clumsy idiot.

"Let's just say I've seen better" he replied smiling to himself

"Are you kidding me, Mickey Mouse would have done better then me then" she sighed and entered the elevator ready to work on her first case.

Thoughts started running through her head, just wondering what it would be like… She was kind of excited.


	3. First case

She sat in the passenger seat of his car and started entering the numbers into her cell she was given earlier. She reached the S.W.A.T number

"Do you call for S.W.A.T often?" she asked looking up from her phone.

"Sometimes, only as a last resort though" he replied making a turn.

"I used to wanna be S.W.A.T" she said looking out the window

"What changed?" he asked quickly glancing at her

"I got rejected. I mean I passed the tests and everything three times, just every time I applied for the position I got rejected."

"So you settled for being a fed?" he asked

"Yeh, a total of 21 weeks serious training got me to Washington D.C FBI division, for four years then I applied for the job here."

"You always wanted to be a cop or something along the lines?"

"Nah, I hated the idea until I was about eighteen. I used to wanna be a professional ice skater."

"What changed, bit of a dramatic change from ice skater to FBI don't you think?"

"Had an accident when I was sixteen, couldn't skate for almost a year, when I went back to training I couldn't cut it anymore. I wasn't able to land the jumps like I was before and without a good jump I couldn't be a good ice skater so I had to go for something different."

"All your family cops?" he asked

"More or less. I got three older brothers, ones another FBI special agent in L.A, ones a U.S Marshall and the others a marine. My two uncles are secret service and you already know what my dad is. What about your family, you all cops?"

"Nah, just me and…"

"Your Dad?" she asked

"Yeh"

"Sucks don't it, having your dad director or deputy director" she said

He smiled "You're telling me. When I first came here Danny was convinced I got my job here because of my dad"

"Did you?" she asked

"If you're wondering if you got picked to work here because of your dad you don't need to. Jack wouldn't care if your dad was president; he picked you because you're good at your job. You were the best applicant he had"

"What makes you think I was wondering that?" she asked looking at him curiously.

"Because I thought the same thing when I first came here"

"Oh right" she said.

She looked out of the window for a few minutes then the car pulled over and they both climbed out. She shut the car door and looked at the building. It was a completely rundown place, trash all outside the door, empty beer bottles, and smashed glass and what she could only assume was vomit.

"This place looks like somewhere out of a horror movie" she said with a look of disgust on her face.

"Welcome to New York City" he replied with a smile.

A cop was standing outside the front door and directed them to the apartment on the fourth floor, no elevator.

They made their way up the stairs and walked through the wide open door with another two officers inside. There was a guy sitting on a chair at the table with his head in his hands, gently rocking back and forward wiping tears from his face muttering something to himself.

They both approached him and he raised his head and stood up from the seat. He was dressed in black clothes, a black shirt, jeans and big bulky boots. His hair was dyed black and he wore dark eyeliner around his eyes which had run down his face with the tears.

"Timothy Drawl I presume?" Martin asked studying the man

"Yes, who are you?" he replied wiping another tear from his face.

"We're with the FBI, I'm special agent Fitzgerald" then he held out his hand in gesture to Caitlin "and this is special agent Valentine. We're here to find out about your girlfriend"

"I'll help in any way I can" he said sitting back down

"When was the last time you saw Victoria?" Caitlin asked

"Last night, around 7pm when she left for work. And call her Vicky, she doesn't like being called Victoria"

"Sorry" Kate replied with a small smile. "And she hasn't contacted you since then, no text, e-mail?"

"No"

"What about friends? Anyone else's place she could have gone to or gone out with?"

"She doesn't really have any friends it's just her and me, we only need each other"

Kate glanced at Martin who looked back towards her, he just raised his eyebrows and jotted down the information she was getting into his notepad.

"What about her relationship with her parents, how's that?" she continued

"Not good, they haven't talked in a while"

"Why's that?" Martin asked

"They never liked me from the start and then when we wanted to get a place of our own they kicked up a fuss about it. They made her choose between them and me"

"She loved you more?" Kate questioned

"I guess so but it wasn't that hard. Her parents treated her like a little girl all her life, they told her what to do, how to dress and she couldn't stand it. She tried talking to them about it but they would never listen. And then when she moved in with me they completely lost it. Her mom said if she made the move she'd never be able to move back and that their relationship would be destroyed."

"Have they talked since?"

"Not since then, Vick's tried calling her but whenever they answer and realise it's her they hang up"

"Do you think they could have had anything to do with her disappearance, maybe couldn't stand loosing their daughter."

"Maybe, I don't know. I guess they could have but I mean that's a bit on the extreme side ain't it?"

"I've seen it happen before" Martin added "It's not as unusual as you might think." There was a moment of silence before he carried on "What about work, any problems there?"

"Not that I know of, well she never said anything about it anyway. You'd have to talk to her colleagues to find that out"

"There are already a couple of agents there as we speak" Kate added "Do you mind if we take a look around?"

"No, no do whatever you need to, just promise me you'll find her and bring her back to me" Another few tears rolled down his cheek, his eyes looked sad and in desperation. Caitlin looked into them for a few moments then finally answered:

"We'll do our best" He relaxed slightly after hearing her say those words, there was something reassuring in it which gave him hope. She gave him a weak smile then turned around to join agent Fitzgerald in searching the apartment.

The place was the gloomiest apartment she had ever seen. The walls were painted black with white symbols randomly placed everywhere. There was also a few posters of some kind of heavy rock back along with big white candles scattered around the rooms.

She pulled on a pair of latex gloves and started to open draws, cabinets, search through letters when she found something which caught her interest. It was an A4 brown envelope addressed to Vicky, the address was written in red ink, old fashioned writing. She opened it up and pulled out the contents, she flipped through what was inside. It was a couple of dozen photos of Vicky. Then along with that was a small piece of paper with a note on it.

"Hey Martin, come take a look at this" she called through to the bedroom. He came out and looked at what she was holding in her hands, and then read out the note.

"I know what you are, it's only a matter of time" he looked at the note then at Kate.

"We also have photos of Vicky dating back for the past six weeks" she passed them over to him to get a better look.

"Hey Tim come here a minute" he called over to him. Tim stood back up from his seat and walked over to them. "What's this?" Martin asked

"That was sent a couple of days ago, we weren't really sure what to make about it but it freaked Vicky out quite a bit" he answered

"What day?" Kate asked

"What do you mean?" he asked looked confused

"What day did you get it?"

"Erm… Saturday I think" he replied

She bit her lip and looked up to Martin "You thinking stalker?" she asked him

"Looks like, but if it is what's the 'I know what you are' part about?" he slipped the photos and paper back into the envelope "Have you had anything else like this sent to you lately, any weird calls, people knocking on your door?" he looked more serious then before

"No. only that" Tim replied

"You're sure?"

"Yes"

"Okay we're gonna go, this officer is going to stay with you in case you get a ransom call, you do he'll be able to trace where, if there is one, the kidnapper is. You know or remember anything else you call myself or Agent Valentine on this number okay" he handed him a small card with two numbers on

"Got it" he took the card and carefully placed it in his front jeans pocket. The two agents turned to walk away when he said one last thing "Please find her" they both stopped to look at him, they gave a sympathetic looked they continued on out. The jogged down the stairs and climbed back into the car.

"You think he had anything to do with it?" Caitlin asked putting her seat belt on.

"Nah, seemed to broke up about it" Martin replied

"He could be faking it and he has no alibi"

"He could well be"

"So where we going now?"

"First we call somewhere to grab something to eat, then back to the office to try and find our stalker"

"Sounds like a plan to me" she said smiling

"Good, now call Jack tell him our stalker theory then call Danny or Samantha and get them to ask if anyone's been hanging around or harassing Victoria"

"You mean Vicky?" she said correcting him, he turned and smiled

"Right, Vicky"

Agent Samantha Spade shut her cell and returned to Danny and the bar tender.

"Sorry about that" She said "We now have evidence to believe that someone was stalking Victoria, have you seen anyone hanging around here, watching her, anything at all" she asked.

The bar tender was a short fat man, wore an old shirt and jeans with a red truckers hat. Dark tanned skin and a beard that hadn't been shaved in the past few days. "Yeh there was one person that I can think of now. Been hanging around her for around the last five or six weeks. Comes in regularly, sits in the same place every time and watches Vicky as she works" He pointed to a table in the corner which would give a perfect view of the bar "only comes in the nights she's working as well. It's only been the last ten days of so that Vicky's been complaining about them, and I remember they got into a bit of an argument two nights ago"

"Can you remember what it was about?" Danny asked taking a drink from his glass of water he had been given earlier by the tender.

"No, I didn't hear much of it I just remember Vicky telling them to leave her alone and stay away"

"Can you tell us what this guy looked like?" Sam asked getting ready to take notes of his description.

"Firstly it's a she not a he. And secondly I can do better then describe the woman to you" He pointed to a security camera above the cash machine pointing in the direction of where the stalker would have been sitting in and another one outside the entrance "I can show you what she looks like"

Danny and Sam looked at each other and followed the tender into the back room to look at the tapes from the previous nights.

Jack Malone and Vivian Johnson sat in the house of the parents of Victoria Hodgkin. It was in West Chester, a nice large five bedroom house, large front and back yard, a Porsche parked in the driveway.

The parents sat on another sofa opposite the two agents.

"Mr. and Mrs. Hodgkin can you tell us where you were last night at around seven pm?" Jack asked,

"You think we had something to do with this?" the father asked sounding rather angry at the potential accusation.

"We are just covering every possibility, this is our job and in order to find your daughter we will have to ask you difficult questions. Now if you can just tell us where you were last night around seven I can actually get to work on finding your daughter" he studied their faces as they looked back to the previous night to remember where they had been and what they were doing. The mother answered first

"I was at my aerobics class, it started at six thirty and finished at eight, Harry dropped me off and picked me up didn't you darling" she said asking her husband

"Yes I did" he confirmed

"Can anyone confirm you being at this class?" Vivian asked

"About fifteen other people that were also in the class yes"

"Well we're going to need a list of those names"

"Of course" with that the mother rose from the chair and walked off to write down a list of the names

"What about you?" Jack asked turning to look at the father

"I was home, alone" All his answers were coming out in short sentences which made him suspicious to Jack.

"So no one can confirm this?"

"No, like I said I was alone"

"You made no phone calls, or answered any?"

"No" He showed no emotion in his face like he didn't care what was going on.

Jack and Vivian spent another half our at the parents house asking a few more questions then finally left.

"Can you believe them?" Vivian asked "They haven't talked to their daughter for nearly a year and a half and they hang up the phone when she does try and call. What if she was in some kind of trouble and needed them. Could you cut your kids of like that because you didn't like their boyfriend?"

"Never, I love my girls too much. Although if I didn't like the boyfriend I'd try and find a way to scare him off. Besides I don't think my girls will ever find a person I'm gonna think is good enough for them. You know what I mean?" he asked tearing his eyes away from the road for a minutes to see her reply

"I know exactly what you mean Jack. So what do you think of our new agent so far?" she asked curiously

"Valentine? I haven't seen her in action yet, besides being late on her first morning she seems alright, should fit in well."

"Why did you pick her out of all the other applicants, she's been in trouble before with both deputy and director himself for breaking protocol several times"

"I know, I read into that and didn't always agree with what she did but for most of it I agreed, if I were her I would have done the same thing more or less, probably more discreetly but still, she was the best applicant, and I wanted the best on my team"

"So now you have not only the deputy director's son working for you but you also have the director's daughter, quite a collection don't you think?" she said smiling

"I do" he said with a slight laugh.

Martin parked his car and they both walked down the street to the little hot food stall opposite the FBI unit. They waited in line for a few minutes then the man stuck his head out of the stall

"What can I do you for folks?" he sounded bright and happy, obviously a good day for him so far.

"Erm… I'll have a burger and fries with a coffee for me" Martin said pulling out his wallet. Then he looked at Caitlin expecting some kind of 'Your eating burger and fries at half ten in the morning, that's gross' or something along the line of that, it's what he usually got from everyone else in the office. Instead she surprised him

"sounds good make that two please" she said and smiled. They took their food and coffee and headed to their desks.

"You know I wasn't expecting you to have that, I thought you'd go for just a coffee or something small and healthy" he said putting his stuff on his desk and taking his coat off.

"Small and healthy? I eat more big and un-healthy food, unless you know someone else cooks for me then I go for the occasional healthy thing like… I don't know some kind of vegetable" she replied taking her coat off and chucking it on the back of her chair.

Then she put her fries and burger on the centre table and picked up her coffee. She walked over to the bin across the corridor and put the lid and stirrer in it then made her way back. On her way back another man in a long white coat dropped his files on the floor, he picked them up and didn't look where he was going and knocked the coffee cup from Kate's hands down the front of her. She saw the cup slip from her hands and closed her eyes a she instantly knew what was going to happen. The cup tipped slightly towards her and the contents poured out down the front of her pink shirt luckily it didn't go onto her trousers. Then she heard a splat as the rest of the coffee and cup hit the ground. The man looked up at her with a guilty expression on his face and she could instantly tell he didn't mean it.

"I am so sorry, I just dropped my files and I didn't see you then I just knocked the cup and it all fell out.." he started to babble on and she interrupted him

"Don't worry, it was an accident right" she said pretending to still seem happy

"Yes but still…" he tried again

"Look don't worry just go and do whatever you have to I'll clean this up"

"Okay, but again I am so sorry" then he turned and scurried off.

Martin watched her as she bit her lip and looked at the ceiling for a moment, then she walked off to the bathroom and moments later returned with a load of tissue paper, then she bent down and mopped up the excess liquid before chucking it in the bin. She walked back over to her desk

"There goes my second coffee today" she said quietly

"What was that?" Martin asked with a mouthful of food

She turned to face him "Nothing, just having a bad" then she unbuttoned her shirt and took it off, chucked it on her desk and checked her white vest for any coffee that leaked through, there was a small discolouration in the centre but it wasn't that noticeable. Then she sat next to Martin at the bigger table and opened her box containing her burger and fries.

In less then ten minutes there was no trace of any burger nor fries being there before, she had completely eaten everything. She closed the box and lent back in her chair, "That was some good food" she said closing her eyes

Martin looked kind of surprised how she ate all that food so quickly "You always eat that much?" he asked

"Most of the time, but I'm eating for two right now" she replied, then she looked at him.

"You're pregnant?" he asked

Her facial expression changed and she looked like she had no idea what he was talking about, she frowned trying to understand where that came from then she realised what she said must of sounded different to how she mean it "Oh, no, no I meant I eating for two meals worth, I skipped breakfast"

"Oh right I thought you meant…"

"No… there is no way I'm pregnant, at all. I mean there is no way I could look after a baby, I couldn't even keep my goldfish alive for more then four months"

He smiled at her then stood from the table taking her box along with his to the bin. She rose from her chair and stretched her arms. She walked over to the white board. It had a red horizontal line going across the centre of the board, with a picture or Vicky Hodgkin at the top with her name and address. Then coming of the red line was a black line with writing on it, which read 'left for work'. It was the last time Vicky was seen before her disappearance so far, then below the red line was the time she left for work. Martin walked up behind her and added another black line to the board, then he wrote on this one 'photos sent from stalker?' then Saturday morning below it.

"Why a question mark?" Kate asked

"Because we don't know that she has a stalker for sure, or if it has anything to do with our case." He turned to face her "and you have a little something down you" he pointed towards her stomach. She looked down to see and dribble of red ketchup down her white vest. She sighed and rubbed her forehead. Martin passed her a tissue from his desk and she wiped it off trying not to smudge it too much more.

"It's not going to come out is it?" she asked looking up from her vest

"I don't know, but I do know that you're gonna need something else to wear"

"Would you be referring to my shirt, which has coffee down it?"

He laughed and bent down to his desk and pulled out a white shirt from his bottom draw.

"Here, it might be a bit big but it should do for now"

"You keep spare shirt in your desk?" she asked taking the shirt from him

"Yeh, I eat a lot of jam doughnuts"

She laughed at his answer instantly understanding what he was saying

"I hear yah" she replied then put the shirt on and buttoned up the front, just enough to cover the red stain, then tucked in to front of the shirt leaving the back un-tucked. She then folded up the sleeves to her elbows.

"How do I look in your very nice white, grey squared shirt" she asked looking down at the shirt

"Like a very good looking man" he said with a small smile

"Should I take that as a compliment or insult?" she folded her arms waiting for an answer

He smirked "You can take that how ever you want to" he picked up the photos and envelope "I'm gonna take this to forensics see if we can get any leads to who dropped this off"

"Okay and I will find something useful to do with this tiny bit of information we have so far" she replied sitting in her big comfy black leather chair

"You do that then" he called behind him as he walked away.

She sat at her chair and glanced back at the photo then turned back to the computer screen and started tapping away in the missing persons files. She had been at the computer for about a half hour when she heard two voices getting closer, two she vaguely recognised. She turned to see her two new colleagues enter the 'bullpen'.

Sam walked up to the main table and placed her note pad down, then she turned to face Danny who had his hands resting on his waist.

"Look Danny stop asking me what movie I think will get her into bed okay, it makes me feel awkward" she said protesting her point.

As soon as she said that Martin walked up behind the two of them and sat back at his desk and listened to the rest of the conversation.

"Alright then just tell me which movie would make a woman feel you know, most loved up? Because we've been on seven dates and still nothings happened and the ways she looks some nights it kills me knowing that she won't be waking up by my side the next morning" Danny replied

Kate smiled when she listened to what Danny had just said then she went to reply but someone else did at the same time.

"The notebook" Kate and Martin both said at the exact same moment. They both looked from Danny to each other and held the look for a moment before Kate broke the silence

"You've used 'The notebook' on a girl before?" she asked

"Maybe. A guy used it on you before?"

"Maybe" she replied with a slight smile.

Danny spent a minute studying the two of them and noticed Kate wearing one of Martin's shirt "Alright you two have been spending way too much time together because not only are you giving the same answers but you're starting to dress like one another. And come on Martin I've heard of a girl getting in your pants but in your shirt? And in only a few hours of knowing each other, that's gotta be some kind of record" Then he finished and wore a wide grin on his face.

Sam walked past him and slapped his arm gently "Leave them alone you nut, at least they're not desperate for sex" then she walked back over to her desk and winked at him.

He instantly replied whilst pointing a finger at her "Firstly, I'm not desperate for sex, she's just really hot" then he pointed towards Martin and Caitlin "and secondly what's this notebook film? Is it any good?"

Martin shrugged his shoulders "Don't ask me, I didn't watch I just pretended to"

The Danny turned his head to Caitlin "Sooo…?"

She spun her chair round to face him and began "Okay basically it's a romance film. So if I were you I'd invite her to your apartment, rent the film out, buy a bottle of wine and some chocolate. Order in some Chinese. Watch the film and I more or less guarantee that she'll be in your arms by the end of the night"

Danny stroked his chin for a few seconds "You think it will work?"

"Worked for me" Martin said

"Worked on me" Kate added

Danny looked at Sam expecting an answer

"I can't really say cuz I've never seen it, but I've heard of it. It's meant to be the most romantic film since the Titanic" she said

Danny turned his attention back to Caitlin "Alright newbie if this works I owe you a drink. By the way what do we call you, Caitlin or Kate?"

"I answer to both" she replied turning back to the computer and hitting the print key.

She walked over to the printed and collected the papers then scanned through them. Sam walked over to see what she had but her cell rang and she stopped to answer.

"Agent Spade" she answered, she waited a moment "Alright then thanks, we'll be there in a minute" she closed her phone and headed back the way she came not ten minutes ago.

"Danny, they're ready for us with that video tape" she said

"What video tape?" Martin asked

"When you two called with your stalked theory we asked about it at her work and it turns out there was a woman hanging round lately. Apparently over the last few days there was some kind of argument between her and our missing person. Just so happens that they had a camera with a perfect shot of this persons face on it. I.T freezing the picture for us to print off, then we're heading back out to her boyfriends place see if he recognises her." Samantha explained

"Nice job, alright then, see you two later"

"Yep" Danny replied waving behind as he walked off with Samantha.

Kate looked through the last piece of paper she had then lay them out on the table in a certain order.

Martin walked up beside her and scanned his eyes over the twelve missing persons reports. All female. All gone missing in the last nine months. In order of date reported missing.

"Martin we got a map covering Manhattan anywhere?" she asked

"Erm yeh" he walked over to Vivian's desk and pulled a rolled poster down from the above shelf. Then he walked back over to Kate and handed it to her.

"Thanks" she took it from him, turned the white board holding Vicky's disappearance time list around and pulled some sticky blue tack from Martin's desk "May I?" she asked indicating the tack

He nodded and she continued what she was doing. She unrolled the map and stuck it to the board. Then took a small box of multicoloured pins from his desk and spent the next few minutes looking at the missing persons reports and sticking pins into the map.

He waited a minute or two then gave up guessing what she was doing "What you got there?"

"Okay, so I wasn't really sure what to do when you left so I started checking the missing persons reports to see if there was any other cases similar to this, when I found that a woman named Julia Heart" she pointed to the sheet before Vicky "Went missing exactly three weeks ago last night, on her way to work."

"You think the two of these are connected in someway?" he asked

"Well at first I wasn't to sure so I checked again another three weeks before that, and the same thing. Female goes missing on her way to work at night. So then I went back every three weeks and I found the same thing up until nine months ago. Which is when I think it started"

"Yeh but all we got to go on is, every three weeks, female and on way to work a night. There's got to be something else connecting them" he said studying the cases more closely

"Like what?" she asked

"Well what if they were part of some kind of group and this person was targeting each one individually?"

"But wouldn't they notice that one of their group members was going missing every three weeks, realise they were targeted?"

He stood back up straight and rubbed the back of his neck "What if it was an online group, a hacker got their address?"

She considered his idea for a moment and lent against the table "I don't remember seeing a computer or laptop at Vicky's place though"

Jack and Vivian walked into the bullpen and instantly noticed the missing persons reports and the Manhattan map. Martin looked up and smiled at the two

"You two get anything from the parents?" he asked

"You mean besides the fact that they're bad ones?" Jack asked.

Martin nodded

"Nah, we got nothing. They haven't seen or heard from their daughter in over a year and as far as their concerned it's going to stay that way until she leaves Timothy and goes home" Jack concluded

"What are you two working on?" Vivian asked looking at cases which were familiar to her from a while ago.

"So far? Not a lot" Kate said

"We start each case with not a lot, but it's something" Jack said

"Okay so we know that Vicky went missing at night, on her way to work last night. So we checked missing persons just in-case there was anything there and we found that the same thing happened three weeks ago last night. And then every three weeks before that dating back nine months ago." Kate started then she looked at Martin who took that as a hint to carry on.

"Which is when we think it started. So Kate pinned the address of each missing person on the Manhattan map" he walked over to the map and put his hand out showing the pins "and as you can see they all took place in this area here, which could be where, if they are connected , the kidnapper lives, they're staying close to home" he finished

"Good work so far guys, but we need more. Martin what did you get from the photos?" Jack asked

"I don't know yet, they're still down with forensics" he answered

"And we don't have anything else connecting the victims?"

Kate and Martin both shook their heads.

Vivian raised her hand "Wait a minute" she finished reading one of the reports and looked up "Caitlin what was our newest victim wearing when she was last seen?"

"The boyfriend couldn't remember what she was wearing but she normally wears black jeans, black top and black sweater. Why?" Kate asked

"Because that's exactly what these three victims were wearing here. The dark hair, dark make-up. Maybe our stalker was preying on people who had the" she started clicking her fingers trying to remember the word "The dark look, the erm…"

"Gothic look?" Kate asked

"Yes"

Jack chucked another report to the table "I got the same on this one. So we think that our 'stalker' has a certain target. So what she see's one of these 'Goths' stalks her for the next couple of weeks and then kidnaps her?"

"It's the best we got so far. But weren't the pictures we found dating back for six weeks though not three?" Kate asked looking at Martin

"Yeh, but that just means that she could be watching two at the same time" he replied.

A pretty brunette woman in a white coat walked up behind Jack and Martin "Agent Fitzgerald?" she asked in a soft tone

He turned to face her, he smiled as soon as he saw who it was "Hey"

She blushed when he smiled at her "I have these forensic reports from the photos and envelope you gave me" then she handed out a few piece of paper with writing on.

"Alright Cindy, thanks for getting them done so quickly, I owe you for this" he replied taking the files

"Oh, it's no problem" she said with a small giggle then she turned and walked off, actually it was more of a skip.

Kate smiled when she saw how she blushed at Martin, obviously a small crush there. Then she tilted her head as she watched Cindy float away in what seemed to be a major happy mood.

"What we got Martin?" Vivian asked from her desk

His eyes ran over the page for a moment before he answered "Alright so we had no finger prints or anything on the envelope but the camera turns out to be a good quality make that costs around $1500 to buy"

"That doesn't sound like a camera you'd buy for holiday pictures, it's sounds more pro" Kate said

"I agree" Vivian smiled

Jack phone rang and he instantly answered. It lasted less then thirty seconds. He shut the phone "That was Danny, turns out that Vicky's boyfriend recognised the woman in the picture as a photographer that has been taking pictures of their block recently"

"I think we found our stalker" Vivian added

Martin turned from his computer screen "and I have a list of photography shops in that area. Maybe she works in one of them?"

"Lets go and find out then" said Jack


	4. Dark, Dark woods

**Author's note:** This is my favourite chapter so far so i hope you enjoy. please reveiw :)

* * *

**19 hours missing**

They each took a couple of addresses and split off again into pairs. This time Jack with Kate and Vivian with Martin. Jack phoned Danny again with a list of shops for them to hit whilst they were in that area.

Martin and Vivian entered their first shop and took a quick look around before a woman walked up to assist them. They were in a well laid out shop with lots of high quality expensive products. The woman had blonde hair tied up into some kind of bun. Manicured nails, perfect make-up well applied, and a tight fitting skirt which stopped just above her knee.

"May I assist you in any way?" she asked politely.

"Yes" Vivian started, she pulled out a photo of the woman they were looking for "Have you seen this woman around lately or does she work for you? Maybe brought a camera over the last nine months?"

The woman studied the picture for a few moments then shook her head. "No I'm sorry I don't recognise her"

"You're sure?" Martin checked

"Positive" she replied with a bright smile

"Okay then, thank you for your help" Vivian said turning away

"Have a nice day" the woman called as they left the shop.

They exited the shop and started their way down the street to the next one.

"She was nice" Martin said casually

"They're paid to be nice Martin" Vivian informed him

"I didn't mean her personality" he winked at her.

"Neither did I"

Jack and Kate walked into their third shop, they both instantly held their breath as they smelled the air. She rubbed her eyes trying to stay awake, she started to feel the effects of not sleeping the previous night.

They walked up to the counter where a tall skinny man was standing eating a bacon sandwich with fat oozing from the bacon. She looked at the man, his hair was few and messy. He looked like he hadn't shaved in weeks, teeth yellowy brown. He wore a holey vest showing his hairy chest, a stained white shirt with sweat marks under the armpits. His face was dirty and greasy. If he wasn't standing behind the counter she'd be sure she worked in a fast food place. And the worst thing was that he stunk to the high heavens. He was only a couple of feet away but she could smell B.O terribly. The shop was bad enough, it was a dingy little pig sty. She looked around seeing the odd picture on the wall, boarded up window where it had been smashed and a carpet which was wearing extremely thin in some places.

"What you after?" he asked. He said this with food still in his mouth. She could see him chewing the food inside, it looked revolting, no he looked revolting, actually the whole looked revolting. Then a little bit of food sprayed from his mouth and landed on the counter, from which Jack took a few steps from.

"I was wondering if you know this woman in the picture" he asked showing his the photo from the video tape.

The man took it from jack and studied it for a few moments. Jack saw his hand as he took it from him. He had scabs all over them, dirty long fingernails. It make Jack cringe.

"Well no I haven't seen this lady, in our shop but my wife Margery is in the back I could ask her if you want me to?" By the time he had finished talking there was pieces of bread and other crap all over the photo.

"If you wouldn't mind" Jack replied.

The man walked off into the back through the door and Jack turned around to see his new agent looking rather pale. She had her hand covering her nose and mouth, and looked like she was trying to keep her self from vomiting. She saw him looking at her and she walked over

"How can you stand the smell and the way he looks?" she whispered

He let out a small laugh "I can't, just I appear to be hiding it a lot better then you" he replied

A few seconds later he reappeared and handed the picture back to Jack "I'm sorry friend, my wife does not recognise her either. Is your friend ok, would she like to come into the back and take a seat or a cup of coffee?" he asked pointing over to Kate who looked like she couldn't stand it any longer.

Jack waited a moment "No, thanks she'll be ok. Just had some bad Thai food last night. Thanks for looking anyway" With that they both left the shop.

They got outside and Kate leant against the wall taking in deep breaths of fresh air.

"Thank god" she said to herself.

"I thought you were actually going to throw your guts up then" Jack said passing her.

She cringed at the thought of the man again "So did I"

Jack passed her picture which still was covered in disgusting remains of the man's lunch.

"Ewww" she shuddered remembering the image of the food in his mouth

"You get the responsibility of the picture now" he said wiping his hands on his jacket.

"Wow, thanks. I don't what to say" She said sarcastically

"Don't worry about it" Jack said smiling.

She rolled her eyes and trudged off after him.

Danny and Sam stood outside of the second shop on their list. It was a small shop with a large window at the front showing pictures of what looked like costume parties. There was a bright neon sign at the top reading 'Spanky's photos'. They looked at one another and walked in. The walked around the shop looking at a few of the photos when a voice from behind them caught their attention.

"Well what can I do you for sugar?"

Sam turned around first to see a large man wearing a light brown wig, a tight leopard skin dress, red heels and a purple feathered scarf.

"Actually we were…" Sam started but was interrupted by him

"I was referring to the other sugar" he winked at Danny

Danny looked behind him hoping that it wasn't aimed at him. Knowing now that it was he just ignored the comment and turned back to looking at the pictures. Sam knew that was a sign that she was going to be dealing with one.

"Playing hard to get, I like it" the transvestite said licking his lips.

Sam faked a smile and continued "Have you seen this woman, did she buy one of your cameras?"

He took one look at the picture and within seconds he had a reply.

"Oh, that's Amanda Heinz"

"Jeez Amanda. Sounds like it should be your name" Danny mumbled.

The guy heard it loud a clear and walked up behind Danny "My name can be whatever you want it to be sweetie" then he grabbed Danny's bum.

Danny grabbed the hand from his arse, turned around and twisted it behind the guys back and slammed him against the wall.

"You touch me one more time you sick son of a bitch and I swear down you won't make it…"

Sam cut through his threat by pulling him away. "Danny… Danny calm it alright"

"Oh I see you're the ruff and ready type. You're my kind of guy" the transvestite teased.

Danny went for him again but Sam held him back. "Danny I think you should wait outside." She could see Danny hesitating at the thought "Just go okay, I'll be out in a minute"

Danny gave the guy one last glare and left the shop.

Sam watched him leave and turned to face the guy. "How do you know this Amanda Heinz?"

"She works for me, well she shoots a few photos and I sell them for her. Some of them are on the wall over there"

Sam walked over to where he pointed and saw a collection of pictures of girls all looking similar to Vicky, then at the top of the group was a picture of Victoria Hodgkin herself. She turned back to the ugly looking 'woman'.

"Do you have an address for her?"

"No, she just comes in every now and then and drops her photos off, but she is kind of weird"

"What do you mean by weird?"

"I'm not sure exactly, but I don't think she's all there"

"Alright thanks"

Sam turned to leave when he called something out to her

"But you can tell your friend that I live in the flat above this place"

"I don't think that's a good idea" Sam replied. Then she left.

She saw Danny waiting out by the car.

"You get anything else from it?" Danny asked referring to the she male inside.

"No, just the name. You phone Jack and Martin, tell them we'll meet them back at the office. I'll drive" He chucked her the keys and they made their way back.

Sam and Danny walked back into the bullpen and took a seat at the table, along with Martin and Kate who were sitting there. Kate opened a bag and pulled out a bottle of fragrance spray. Then she stood up and walked a few feet away from the table then sprayed it all over her.

"What's up with you?" Sam asked frowning.

Kate finished spraying her entire body and coat then joined them back at the table. "Jack and I must have got the stinkest place around here, with the most disgusting hill billy. And when I came out my clothes stunk of whatever mangy smell was in there. So I made Jack wait for me whilst I brought this from the shop down the street to cover the smell." She explained.

"Hmm, nice" Sam said "Well at least you didn't get what Danny got"

Kate and Martin looked at Danny who was now sitting down, head resting on hands looking a little pissed off.

"Why what happened t him?" Kate asked

"I got some dirty transvestite hitting on me and grabbing my arse" he shuddered at the thought.

"Yeh, then he slammed him into the wall and threatened him" Sam added.

"He deserved it" Danny said in defence.

Martin leaned back into his chair and smiled "Well I got a hot blonde in a nice clean expensive shop"

Danny looked at him in envy for a minute then decided to change the subject. "You find anything on our Amanda Heinz yet?"

"Nah, I checked her background and bank statements. No convictions, steady income. Viv's pulling up her address now" Martin replied

"Make that addresses" Vivian said turning from her desk. "She has two places. An apartment she rents in Manhattan, and a house she owns out in Massachusetts"

"Why would she need two places?" Danny asking turning to face Vivian

"Doesn't matter, we got her either way. Which means Vicky's probably gonna be at one of those places. If Amanda is our kidnaper that is" Martin said

"Where's Jack?" Samantha asked realising he wasn't with them.

"In his office" Kate answered "His wife needed him to call her back A.S.A.P"

Sam turned to see Jack in his office, he looked like he was having another argument. She felt bad for him. The main reason he was in this mess with his wife was because of her and the nights her and Jack spent together. She had a flashback to those nights and how happy she was. A small smile grew across her face. She saw Jack put the phone down and head towards his team.

"Everything ok?" She asked him

"No, Kate broke her leg at school today in gym and is in hospital. Apparently she's crying for me" he said rubbing his forehead.

"You want us to take care of this?" Vivian asked

He nodded "Yeh. If you don't mind"

"Don't worry Jack we got it" she assured him "Everything's fine"

"Alright everyone, Viv's in charge do as she says and I'll see you later or tomorrow"

"Hey, tell Kate we wish her well" Danny said

Jack weakly smiled and left.

There was a few moments silence "Who's Kate?" Kate asked

"She's one of Jacks daughters, there's Kate and Hanna" Sam said.

Vivian stood up and put her jacket on then she looked at the two addresses and hesitated on where to send who.

"If she's holding Victoria some where it's most probably going to be out in her house, which is where I want three of us to be. I want Danny and Martin out there with" She looked at Kate hesitant on whether to send her out there, then remembered Jack saying he picked her because she was one of the best "I want you to take Kate out there with you, Samantha and I will take the apartment. Main objective is to find Victoria, however if you find Amanda and not Victoria I want her arrested and brought in for questioning."

"You want me to go out there?" Kate asked, she was sure that she'd be sent to the apartment.

"Jack said you're one of the best, I trust him and I trust you to do this right" Vivian said, just hearing that one line comforted her.

"Okay".

Everyone opened their desks and pulled out a navy blue jacket, saying F.B.I on the back. Kate stood their wondering what to do. Vivian noticed and realised she hadn't had hers yet.

"Yours is in the bottom draw of your desk. I got you a small based on looking at you. However if it doesn't fit take it to second floor and they'll swap it for you."

By this time Kate had gotten her jacket out a put it on. Vivian looked at her, it was a little big. "Maybe I should have gotten you extra small"

"Nah, it's alright. I'll just have to eat more" she replied.

They all left the building and headed for their destinations.

As Massachusetts was only the next state along they decided to drive. They took Kate's car as it was closet to the door. Danny sat in the passenger's seat and Martin in the back.

She waited for a moment for passing cars then pulled out rather hastily. Then she took a turning and swung the back end of the car round and skidded a little then lined the car up and make her was out of New York.

"You do have a driver's licence right?" Danny asked wondering after the rather bad start

"Sure" she replied

"They actually passed you?"

"Yeah. Well I mean I failed the first three times but I passed on the fourth"

Danny turned to look at Martin; he had fright in his eyes. Martin returned the look. Then looked at Kate through the mirror "How did you fail your test three times?"

"Well the first time I reversed into a truck and ruined the back end of the car. The second time I nearly knocked a woman of a bicycle and the third I ran through a set of red lights. So if you think about it I got better as I went on" she explained

Danny closed his eyes and leaned back into his seat "Oh god I'm gonna die"

As he said that she made a turned again which caused both men to grab onto the doors to stop them from flying from side to side.

Vivian and Samantha stood outside the apartment they had the address for. Pinned to the door was a large wooden cross and there was a line of garlic down each side of the door. They looked at one another and then Samantha banned on the door. "Amanda Heinz, F.B.I. open the door"

They waited a few seconds. No reply. They turned to face the woman standing behind them with a bunch of keys, who crept up to the door and unlocked it.

"Can I go now?" she asked sounding scared

Vivian nodded "Of course"

The old woman walked away at a fast pace leaving the agents to do their jobs.

They brought their guns out by their sides and pushed the door open. They ran in staying from view in case there was someone dangerous in there. Vivian turned and checked the bathroom. No one there.

"Clear!" she shouted through to Sam who had just checked the kitchen.

"Kitchens clear" she shouted back. They walked up side by side through the living room, just the bedroom to check. Vivian turned the door knob and Sam burst through the door gun in front of her. No one else in there, but that wasn't what caught their attention.

The was a desk in the corner with a lamp shining down on all the paper work. It was full of all the photos from previous missing person's case, paper clippings referring to vampires, about murders involving massive lose of blood. Books on vampires. Then on the wall was a large white board with a mind map on. She had writing coming off a centre word 'Vampires'. It had information on how they dress. 'Vampires tend to stick to darker coloured clothing'. Information on what they look like 'Very pale skin with dark hair'. Their habits, 'They are creatures of the night, stay indoors during daytime'.

They looked at one another.

"This explains why she picked women who had the gothic look, when they were on their way to work at night said" Sam said

Vivian picked up a piece of paper listing the ways to kill a vampire 'wooden stake through the heart, sunlight, holy water, decapitation, fire'. She handed the list to Samantha to look at. They searched the rest of the apartment. They found more garlic and crosses by the windows.

"Garlic and crosses are said to keep the creatures of the night away" Sam said searching

through the kitchen draws.

"How do you know that?" Vivian asked looking through the medicine cabinet.

"You've obviously never seen an episode of Buffy the vampire slayer then" she replied

"Can't say that I have no. But I think I've found something better"

Sam joined her in the bathroom. Vivian was holding a little orange medication bottle almost full of pills. "What's that?"

"Amanda's medication. Prescribed a year ago, looks like she stopped taking it"

"Which means she's…"

"It means she's delusional"

They tried calling Danny, Martin and Kate for the next ten minutes but they couldn't get through, they were obviously out of range.

"Do you think we should go after them?" Sam asked

Vivian shook her head "They left a couple of hours ago, they should be there by now"

"Shit" Sam said to herself "It's getting dark out there now as well"

"Which means they've got a delusional patient who believes in vampires out there"

Sam looked at Vivian who had a worried look on her face "Their in deep danger aren't they?"

Vivian just nodded.

Martin looked at the map. "Alright now take this turning to your right down here"

"Are you sure man, cuz we haven't seen a house or car or anything for well over an hour. We're not even on proper road anymore, just a dirt track" Danny asked

"It's what the map says" he replied

"Where's this turning anyway? It's too dark to see anything easily?" Kate asked

Martin looked behind them "It was the one we just passed back there"

She braked hard and reversed to a little turning which led into a large wooded area.

"Oh this looks promising" she said sarcastically.

They went down the bumpy track heading farther into the woods, when finally they found a small opening.

"Turn off your head lights" Danny said

"Why?" she asked

"Because if they see us coming they might do a runner"

She did as instructed. It was a little wooden/tin cabin that looked like no one had lived there for years. It was next to a small lake, which had a wooden walkway leading partway into the lake. Next to the other side of the cabin was an load of rust pick trucks and cars. But surrounding this small area was the rest of the deep dark woods.

"Leave the car here so they do see us pull up, we can walk to it. She turned off the engine and they all climbed out of the car, quietly closing the doors. They left it ten meters into the woods from the clearing so it wouldn't be visible.

It was almost pitch black now, and they could hear birds and other animals in the woods.

They paused before going down to the cabin.

"Does this place gives either of you the creeps?" Kate asked hesitating about whether she wanted to go on.

"Yeh, kinda reminds me of the film 'Wrong turn'?" Martin said studying it.

"Great, thanks. Now I'm gonna be thinking about big scary deformed people watching me form the trees." She replied, he thought she was joking but by looking at her facial expression he could tell she wasn't.

"You find the film scary Danny?" Martin asked avoiding looking at Kate again.

"Scared me from ever wanting to go camping in the woods" he replied.

"My first case and I'm sent out into the middle of no where, to a place where we haven't seen a car or house for god knows how many miles. A place that's in the middle of the dark, dark woods. A place that is a creepy little tin slash wooden cabin, that has rusty old vehicles, a little lake that has god knows what in it. When it's pitch black, a full moon. We can hear annoying animals making noises all around us. Looking for a 'weirdo' according to a transvestite, And I now have the thoughts of monsters wanting to kill us thanks to an ass to my right" she finished talking and they both looked at her.

"Doesn't sound to good when she puts it like that does it?" Martin asked Danny

He shook his head "Not really no. Think we should call for back up?"

"We can't, no signal round here. I already checked, unless we go back a few miles try and find some somewhere we can call from" Kate said opening the trunk of her car.

"Yeh and in that time a girl could die" Martin said

"Well then I guess we go down there our selves" she replied

They walked round the back to see what she was doing. She lifted up a flap which showed a metal safe screwed down to the car with god knows how many bolts. She took one of her keys and opened it up. inside was three more magazines, and a couple of flash lights. She grabbed another magazine and slipped it into her pocket and took out a flashlight. She looked at the two men "Martin scared me okay with the Wrong Turn movie, it's just a precaution. You want anything?"

They both took a magazine, they're guns were the same as hers, and a flashlight each.

"You're handy in a bad situation aren't yah" Danny said

"You wanna see it when it's stocked, I got shotguns and everything in there." She replied.

They looked at each other again.

"My Dad's kind of protective" she explained

"Let's do this" Martin said.

They all pulled out their pieces and kept them by their side. They didn't pull out their flash lights yet. The full moon was giving them enough light to guide them to the cabin. And there they walked into a danger none of them knew about.


	5. I believe you

Vivian and Samantha raced back to the office and ran into the bullpen. They both pulled up a chair and sat at Samantha's computer. They typed in the address the other three agents had gone to and a map was brought up onto the screen. There was a green arrow brought up showing where Amanda Heinz's house was. They studied the map for a moment.

"Where's the nearest police station?" Vivian asked

Sam began tapping away again "Ninety-five miles away"

"Ninety-five miles? That's ridiculous"

"Well hardly anyone lives round there. There's no point in having one way out there just for a few places." Sam pointed out.

"What about the nearest house to it?"

Sam tapped away again and brought up another green arrow "There's this one, which is only sixty miles from them"

"Maybe we can call that house get them to send a message to Danny?" Vivian suggested.

Samantha clicked on the arrow for a number.

"Oh"

"What's wrong?" Viv asked

"That house has been abandoned for the last three years, no ones there"

"We'll have to call the nearest sheriff then and ask him to assist them, just tell them that our agents could be in serious trouble and are in need of back-up. Could they assist?"

"Yeh but Viv, they are over ninety miles away even if they did ninety miles per hour there, which is highly doubtful they still wouldn't make it there for over an hour, and by the time they got the men and got ready…"

"It's all we got Sam, just make the call"

Sam glanced at Vivian then picked up the phone and started dialling away.

Martin, Danny and Kate slowly made their way to the house. Half-way there Kate noticed something in the distance. She put her hand out in front of Martin who stopped, then he stopped Danny.

"What's up?" Martin asked

She pointed at the end of the wooden walkway into the lake. "What does it look like to you?"

"Like a person sitting on a chair looking out onto the lake" Martin said

"In the dark?" Danny asked

"Maybe it's our victim?" Kate suggested

Martin looked at Danny "What you think we should do, we can't all go out there in case Amanda sees us"

"Alright, if that is Vicky it means Amanda's probably gonna be in the cabin. So I suggest… Kate you go down to the water check it out, if it's our vic and she's still alive get her to your car. If not come back to the cabin. Martin you take the front door, stay low and quiet. I'll go round the back and see if there's another entrance. You okay with that?"

"I got it" she replied.

She started to make her own way down to the lake when Martin called her name. She turned round to look at him.

"Be careful. You need us, you shout" he said

She smiled and gently nodded her head then turned back towards the lake.

Danny and Martin headed towards the cabin.

"Either it's me or you've a bit or the thing for the newbie" Danny whispered jokingly.

Martin glanced at him "It's you"

"You sure about that?"

"Danny"

"Yeh?"

"Shut-up" Martin said firmly

She may of only been here for about eleven hours, but Martin had already started to warm to her. She was funny, pretty, sure a little clumsy but that was probably the first day nerves.

They had reached the cabin and Danny had gone around the back way to find another entrance, this way if she was in there they had her trapped. He reached the front door. Martin turned back to check Kate, she was slowly making her way down the pathway, he hesitated whether to wait and make sure she was ok but thought best to stick to the plan.

Kate was about four foot from the chair. The wooden walkway itself was about two meters wide and 15 or so meters long. The person was tied up, sitting perfectly still. She looked back towards the cabin, Martin and Danny were out of sight. For the moment she was on her own. She brought out her flash light and walked round to the front of the person in the chair. The moon was reflecting her own shadow on the person so she brought her light up to the persons face. She recognised it well. It was who they had spent the last ten or so hours searching for. Victoria Hodgkin. She was unconscious. Kate slipped her gun back into her hip holster and used her newly free hand to check for a pulse. She found a pulse but it hard to find and unusually slow. She was so concerned for Vicky that she never noticed a woman slowly creeping upon them. If she had looked up back towards the house she would of seen the stranger making her way up. But she didn't look up, instead she walked around to the back of Vicky's chair and looked at the ropes which bound her arms and legs together. The woman was right behind her now. Kate hadn't even started on the ropes yet.

"Leave her" the woman whispered in a deep tone.

Kate bolted up and turned around to see some one else she had been looking for all day, Amanda Heinz. Kate had literally just turned around when Amanda brought up the handle of a shovel and knocked it across Kate's face. The sheer force from the shovel handle lost all of Kate's balance and she tumbled into the water. Making quite a splash. Normally the blow would have momentarily knocked her unconscious but the cold from the water brought her back.

She still had her flash light in her hand. The light shone to the ground and she saw a sight which scared the hell out of her. She went to gulp in a breath of air for shock but all that went in was water. She kicked her feet and moved her arms making her way to the surface desperate for air. She made it out from the water. But she didn't have much space to move her head. She had about five inches, she had come up under the wooden walkway. She opened her mouth letting the water out and coughed as quietly as she could. She waited a moment, then heard Amanda drop the shovel and run down the walkway, heading back towards the land. Kate held on tightly to the flash light. She shone it to the ground of the water and looked back down to what she had seen before. She didn't want to look but she needed to check if what she had seen was real or if it was the blow that caused her to see this dreadful sight. She looked back down, there it was again. She could see a woman, pure white, eyes wide open, mouth wide open too. Hands and legs tied behind her back. Then she looked further down the body and she couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. Something sticking into the woman's chest, where the heart was.

**Flashback**

In Washington D.C. She was fifteen years old. She was in a dark street. She could hear siren and people shouting. She rolled over to see a face. A face she recognised well. With blood dripping out of their mouth. Eyes wide open.

**End of flashback**

She looked at the eyes one more time, which seemed like they were looking back at her and decided she couldn't take anymore. She slowly made her way to the very end of the walkway, using the side of the wood to guide her there.

Martin shut the door behind him. It was a long hallway with several doors leading off into other rooms. At the other end of the hallway was another door which he saw Danny enter through. They looked at each other, both knowing that the other had no luck yet finding either of the women they both quietly entered the room nearest them. Nothing in either. They both took another room. Nothing in them. They both met at the fifth and final door. Danny mouthed one, two, three to Martin who then opened the door and Danny went in with his gun followed by Martin. Again no one there. But the room how ever was full of interesting things. There was desk with a list on it, the same list which Vivian had found earlier. Ways how to kill a vampire.

"What the hell?" Danny mumbled

"How about this?" Martin said opened a big wooden chest. It was full of axes, wooden stakes, garlic, crosses, holy water.

"Where the hell are we?" Danny asked quietly

"In a crazy chicks place" Martin replied a the same volume. He picked up a file saying private on the front. They opened and saw hundreds of miniature photos or dead women.

Some of them were same women, some of different. But each one was dead. The pictures showed women missing heads, stakes in their hearts, burnt remains. The looked at a few more pictures when they heard a loud splash coming from outside. They look at each other said the same thing in unison

"Kate"

They rushed back out into the hallway and headed for the door Martin used as it was closed to the lake. They reached it and went to push it open.

"Shit, it's locked" Martin cursed.

"Come on we'll go round the back way" Danny said.

They ran back down the hallway and out the back door. The slowed their pace a little with their guns in front of them, searching for anyone they didn't recognise. With no on in sight they made it round to the front of the cabin. They looked out to where the person and chair was and they saw no sight of Kate, it was how it was before only with an object lying on the floor. They looked out onto the water looking for what made the splash but all they could see was big old ripples coming from the direction of the end of the wooden path.

Kate came to the end of the walkway, turned off her flash light and gently rolled it onto the wood. She heard no noises so she placed the end of her fingertips on the wood and lifted her head up. She raised it just enough for her eyes to see down the walkway. She couldn't see any sign of anyone so she carefully started to haul the top half of her body up.

Danny looked out again to the person on the chair and noticed some roll across the wood, something that wasn't there before. Moments later they saw someone start to pull their selves out from the water. Martin noticed it too. They both ran down the wooden planks as quickly as they could.

Kate got the top half of her body up and heard food steps heading her way hard and fast, someone running. She looked up and was just about able to make out their faces. Danny and Martin finally reached her. Martin put his gun away, bent down and helped her up. Danny left his gun out, checking their surroundings. Her whole body came out of the water and she stood on her two feet. Martin held her firmly for a few seconds then let her go. She began shivering. Her lips has turned purple and the left side of her face was bright red.

"You alright?" he asked softly

She looked into his eyes and could tell he felt guilty for leaving her

"Freezing, not a good night for a swim" she replied

"What happened?" Asked joining them but still keeping an eye out.

"I erm… checked Vicky's pulse, she's alive but it's real slow. Went round to untie her, didn't see Amanda come up behind me. She said 'leave her'. I turned around, got a shovel in the face, fell into the water, stayed under this until I heard her leave" She said in between shivers

"Amanda's still here then?" Danny checked

She nodded "But there's a dead woman down under this. I saw her"

"We know. We found pictures of loads of them, all killed in different ways. If that ones under here it means the rest are probably around here somewhere" Martin said turning to look at Danny.

"Damn it. We should have gone back and called for back up" he moaned

"Danny we didn't know. It's not our fault. If we hadn't of turned up Vicky could be dead by now" Kate said reassuringly.

"Yeh, and so could you be right now. What if she had of hit you harder and you drown?" he argued back

"But I didn't. Okay let's just catch this bitch and get the hell outta here" she said

"Arrest? What the hell are you talking about?" Martin asked

"We don't wanna kill her unless as a last resort" Kate stated

"Caitlin this woman is psychotic okay. She attacked you and has for all we know killed god knows how many other people" Martin hissed

"But she's still a human being, what if she has a tumour or a disease then this isn't her fault, it's something else that could be doing this" she pleaded

Danny walked past Martin and stood about three inches from her face. "Alright, you can try what ever you want, but if she makes one move that could be threatening, or attacks another one of us then you shoot her dead. You understand me?" Danny whispered

"Thank you" she replied with a serious look. Then brought her gun back out from it's holster, picked up her flashlight and began back towards the cabin.

Martin pulled his gun back out and followed her by Danny's side "Danny what the hell? This bitch is completely psychotic, thinks that these are women are vampires and you're telling Valentine that she doesn't need to shoot unless it's necessary." Martin asked sounding rather pissed

"We all got people we feel we need to save, especially our first case" Danny replied

"What if she gets her self killed?"

Danny just looked at Martin, he knew that this was a high risk but he had to trust another agent to do what they thought was best. "Well then we better make sure that doesn't happen"

They walked back round to the cabin. All three of them were lined up by the back door ready to re-enter in case Amanda had returned in here. Danny reached to open the door when they heard a crash coming from the assortment of vehicles behind them. All three of them shot round with their guns aimed looking in the direction the noise came from.

Sam came off of the phone from speaking with the nearest sheriff.

"Okay so it's not as bad as we thought" she started

"What do you mean?" Vivian asked

"The sheriff said he had two cars out on patrol, he checked their location and they were twenty miles from where our agents are"

"That's a long way out to patrol"

"I know, but I didn't ask. He said he'd radio his men as soon as we finished talking and they'd be at the place in just under ten minutes."

"What does he know about Amanda?"

"I told him that Amanda Heinz could potentially be very dangerous, that she was delusional, hadn't taken medication for an extremely long time, probably killed before and that our agents needed their help."

"Good job" Vivian patted her shoulder "You want a drink?"

"No thanks" Sam replied with a weak smile

"Don't worry everything gonna be alright, they're trained for this remember" The Vivian made her way to the break room.

"I hope so" Sam said to her self.

They were about to head to where the noise had come from when a louder noise came from inside. It sounded like something crashing to the floor.

Danny hesitated for a moment "You two check in there, I'll check out this" he instructed then made his way to the vehicles. Martin and Kate entered the cabin again through the back door guns still in front. They went two rooms across then they came to the room where Danny and Martin had found the disturbing things before. The door was wide open and a woman was sitting on a chair at the desk, Amanda Heinz. The both entered the room, guns pointed at her. She turned around and faced them. She had a sharp bladed axe in her hands. She rocked forwards and backwards gently then stood up and took a few steps forward, sending Martin and Kate backwards by the same number of steps.

"Amanda?" Kate asked. She was further into the room then Martin he was still near the door whereas Kate was in the centre.

"Leave me alone or I'll have to kill you" she hissed

"We want to talk to you" Kate tried again

"GO" she shouted a little louder

Kate looked around the room searching for something to say then she saw a piece of paper on the desk of how to kill vampires "We believe you about the vampires" Kate blurted out, she wanted to be able to arrest Amanda not kill her. Hopefully if Amanda believed in vampires then talking about them would keep her calm.

"Really?" Amanda asked slightly quieter now

"Yeh" Kate assured her, she looked at Martin and shrugged when he agreed

"Yeh, we want to talk to you about the vampires" Martin added not really sure what he was saying.

Amanda squinted her eyes not sure whether to trust them or not "Then why were you trying to untie it"

Martin looked at Kate wondering how she'd reply to this one.

Her mind was racing to try and find an explanation "Well… I was trying to untie because… erm… we wanted to take it away for testing and dissection things like that… Because we want to do the same thing as you… we want to get rid off all the 'vampires' and bye doing this we are hopefully going to find a way to rid the whole world from them" She waited a moment to see if she bought the story.

Martin has his gun aimed, finger on trigger ready just in case Kate's plan back fired.

"I was interested on what you did to the person out on the lake. What did you do to her" Kate asked

"It was just some simple human sleeping drug. It should be coming to any minute now. How do you know my name?" Amanda was growing anxious and agitated, she started swaying quickly waiting for an answer.

"Well erm… we've been… erm…" Kate was struggling

"We've been watching you for the past couple of weeks" Martin helped her out. Kate turned to look at him, she was grateful he had helped out there. "We were impressed with how you were spotting vampires so easily so we decided to study how you were doing it"

"That's right" Kate confirmed

"Why do you have guns and badges?" Amanda asked again

"Well that's because… we're part of an agency who track down these 'vampires' and need guns to protect ourselves, sometimes it's really dangerous" Kate took off her gold badge and chucked to Amanda to look at. Amanda studied it for a moment.

"What's F.B.I. stand for?"

Kate's eye widened whilst she tried to find an answer "Erm… the F stands for funny, the B stands for … bizarre and the I…" she looked at Martin not sure was 'I' was for

"Investigations" he finished "We're from the Funny, Bizarre Investigations unit."

"I've never heard of them" she said

"Well that's because we're a secret agency, because if normal people knew what you and we know then they would be scared right?"

"That makes sense" Amanda said "Sorry about before, hitting you into the water. I thought you were trying to free the creature, but now I know you're on my side I'm sorry"

"Forget it" Kate replied cautiously.

Danny crept around the vehicles checking each one thoroughly. Then he heard the noise again. It was in the truck in front of him. He grabbed the handle with one hand and tore the door off and pointed his gun in there. There was nothing harmful in there just a cat scratching at the plastic frame. Danny let a breath out then turned ready to go back down to the cabin when he saw a couple of lights heading his way through the woods. Then he saw red and blue flashing lights.

"Back-up" he said to himself. He ran across up the slight hill and stopped where Kate's car was. He waited for a few seconds whilst the two cars pulled up. They stopped where Danny was and turned all the lights off.

A man stuck his head out from the window "You one of those FBI agents in need of back up"

Danny nodded "Who called you?" he asked

"An agent Samantha Spade from you New York office, said that you have a potentially dangerous woman, who has probably killed before."

"That's the one" Danny replied

Four officers in total stood next to Danny.

"What do you want us to do?" The smallest one asked

They started walking down to the cabin. "Alright I have two other agents in there who haven't come out yet, so I'm guessing Amanda's in there two. The one you're looking for is the red head. You see her and she looks like she could make any kind of threatening move you shoot. Got it?" Danny asked

They all nodded. Then one of them pointed to a window at the side of the cabin, a light was shining from inside and they could see a figure holding what looked like to be an axe. They crept up slowly, trying to stay out of sight. They could see the red head holding an axe. She was talking to someone. They stayed about ten feet away and only hand the red in sight. They didn't move across in case they caught her attention.

"Alright stay here, any sudden dangerous movements you shoot" With that Danny left them to it.

"So where will you be taking the vampire?" Amanda asked, much calmer now then before.

"We have a special warehouse, where no one can find us." Martin informed her.

"Yeh and there we have special scientists who perform these 'experiments'" Kate added

"You use the same scientists to perform all these experiments?" Amanda asking looking unimpressed

"Erm… no, no we have different scientists specializing in different things such as zombies and stuff"

"That's well thought out" Amanda stated shaking a bit with excitement as she talked about them "Are you all specialising in vampires"

Kate and Martin just nodded.

"How ever we think that we could employ you at our warehouse. Because you have lots of information we would like to know. And then if you like we can give you a tour of the place? How's that sound?"

"Good, so you believe me, promise you'll help me?" Amanda asked

Kate felt sorry for Amanda there was obviously something wrong with her, and she promised that he would help, but she didn't mean it the same way Amanda did. "I promise

I'll help you. But we are going to need to handcuff you"

Amanda backed off when she said that "Why, I thought you believed me"?

"We do, we just have to scan you outside check that nothing happened to you whilst mixing with the 'vampires'. I promise I wont hurt you. Look I'll put my gun away." She did as she said and slipped her gun away, only hoping that if anything happened Martin had her back.

Then she brought out a pair of handcuffs. "I'm going to need you to turn around and put your hands behind your back. Can you do that for me?" Kate asked

Amanda hesitated for a moment then nodded. She was halfway through turning round then realised she wasn't told what to do with her axe. She spun back around and raised her axe.

"What should I do with this?" She asked.

From outside it looked like Amanda had her axe up ready to attack so two officers pulled their triggers and two shots flew through the air. Kate went to answer her but she heard two shots being fired.

**Flashback**

There she was again standing in the street, she looked one way and she could see the police guns aimed, shouting to the people the other side of her. She turned to look who it was to. A gang of men standing around and in a big black SUV. Yelling back, all of the sudden two shots were fired from the one man's gun. All the sudden everything was like slow motion. She saw the two bullets come from the gun and slowly make their way towards her.

**End of flashback**

Two bullets burst through the window and punctured Amanda's chest. The axe fell form her hand and she collapsed to the floor.

"NOOOOO" Kate screamed. She ran down to the floor where Amanda was lying and she looked into her eyes.

Blood starting to dribble from her mouth and she managed to get the last few words out

"Promise you'll get the vampires". Amanda coughed a few times.

Kate nodded "I promise".

Then Amanda took in her last breath and never let it out. She was gone, dead. Her body lay there lifeless.

Kate ran her fingers over her face and closed Amanda's eyes. She wanted so much to get Amanda out alive, and she was so close.

Martin slipped his gun away and bent down besides Kate.

"Hey, you alright?" he asked softly.

She turned to face him and wiped a tear from her eye and gently nodded, "Yeh, it's just not what I expected for a first case" They both stood back up.

"There's nothing we could of done. You did your best" he tried to comfort her.

"I know I just thought I was gonna get her out alive" Another tear ran down her face and she wiped it away as quickly as it fell.

Martin felt sorry for her, she had tried so hard.

"Come here" he said gently. She leaned in and he gave a small hug.

Danny came into the room. He saw Amanda lying still on the floor, dead.

"You guys alright?" He asked noticing the little hug.

When she heard Danny's voice Kate pulled away from Martin and wiped the final tear from her face.

"Yeh" she replied.

"We got Vicky, she's coming round" he said

"Yeh we know. It was just a sleeping drug" Martin said walking towards Danny.

"I said we'd drop her off at the nearest hospital"

"Alright"

Kate looked at the body on the ground one more time.

"Kate you coming?" Danny asked

"Yeh" She turned away from Amanda and made her way to the car.

Danny and Martin helped Vicky into the back seat of Kate's car.

Then Danny informed the officers that he would send a Crime unit out here. If one of the patrol cars could wait here for it. The Danny climbed into the back seat with Vicky, he had some questions he needed to ask her when she was properly conscious. Kate leant against the car looking out to the lake thinking about the woman that was under there. Martin walked up by her side.

"You ready to go?" He asked looking out to where she was looking.

She waited a moment and shivered a little, she was still pretty wet from being in the lake. "Yeh" she replied.

Martin saw that she was still cold and pulled off his FBI jacket. "Here" he said passing it to her.

She looked at him "I'm fine"

"You're shivering, just take it" She took it from his hands and slipped her cold wet one off and put his warm dry one on and zipped it up to the top.

"You gonna give your pants next?" she asked sarcastically

He raised his eyebrows taking the comment the wrong way.

She realised what she said "Scrap that. It came out wrong" Then she pulled out her keys and passed them to him. "Will you drive?" She asked.

"Sure, at least this way I'll make it home in one piece" he said trying to lighten the mood.

She smiled "Shut up" put her wet jacket in the back of the car and climbed into the front passenger seat next to Martin.

She put her belt on and looked into the back where Danny and Vicky were sitting, Vicky who was snoring.

"I thought she was awake" Kate said as Martin started up the engine

"She was" Danny replied "For about three minutes then she decided she was tired and went back to sleep"

On the way back Danny finally got signal on his cell and phoned Viv back at the office to let her know of the situation. Then after that everyone was silent until they arrived at the Massachusetts hospital where they dropped Vicky off, where another officer took over to keep and eye on her.

"Alright then, bye" Vivian put the phone down. The she walked over to Sam

"Everything's ok. They got Vicky, she's alive. Amanda on the other hand she was killed. They found another body though and think that the rest of the women missing are there somewhere."

"That's good news. I mean that they're ok, not that there's more dead women up there" Sam replied

"I now, you can go home now, it's late get some sleep"

"What about you?" Sam asked

"I just have to phone the crime lab and then her boyfriend then I'm going home to see my family"

"Alright then, I'll see you in the morning?" Sam asked

"As always" Vivian smiled.

The three agents pulled up outside the FBI unit, and entered their floor. Kate passed Martin his jacket back and slipped her own coat on.

"See you tomorrow" she said as she went to walk off

"You sure you're alright?" Martin checked

"I just need to go home and get some sleep" She smiled. She went to leave again but Danny walked up beside her.

"So what was the name of this film I gotta get for tonight again?" He asked

She looked t her watch "Danny, it's ten thirty, she's still coming round?"

"She doesn't finish work till eleven she's coming round after."

"Is your car here?" she asked

"No, in for repair" he replied

She passed him her car keys "Drive me home and you can borrow mine"

With that Danny and Kate left, and Martin soon followed twenty minutes later. All on their way home to get a good nights rest. Well except for Danny who had other things on his mind.


	6. That night

**Author's note: **Okay this is a really short chapter compared to the others but i just felt i needed to write something to finish that night off. I know this one isn't that good but i will be posting some more soon. Please reveiw and thanks to the people that have reviewed so far!

* * *

Jack sat in the hospital outside of the theatre room waiting with his wife and daughter waiting for his baby to come out. Hours passed, which seemed to drag like never before. Hanna had fallen asleep on his wife's lap. He looked at the clock down the hall, it read ten fifteen. He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. He started to feel impatient and paced up and down the corridor waiting for little Kate to come out. Then the double doors swung open a doctor wearing the green outfit walked out. He rubbed hi eyes and searched for Kate's Parents. Jack looked at his wife and Hanna who were still both asleep. He walked up to the doctor

"How is she?" Jack asked with concern in his voice

"She had a pretty bad fracture, it took a while but we were able to push it nearer the position it should be in." The doctor explained

"What's that mean?"

"It mean's she will have to wear a cast for a good couple of months. It will also be really painful for her for a while. I'm going to need to keep her in for observation for a few days, then I'll send her home with a prescription. This stuff I'll go over with you when we release her"

"When can we see her?" He asked

"There are just finishing up with her in theatre, you can see her then. She'll be unconscious for the next few hours, and when she awakes probably a little groggy, she won't be a hundred percent with what's going on for a few hours after that. But then she should be fine."

Jack shook the doctor's hand "Thank you, very much"

The doctor smiled and patted Jack's shoulder "You have any more questions I'll be in tomorrow after noon to check on little Kate"

Jack nodded "Okay".

With that the doctor walked off and Jack sat back down next to his family. He felt relieve that everything had gone well. He waited till was returned to her ward before waking his wife and Hanna.

Vivian opened her door and placed her keys on a little wooden table by the front door. She took of her coat scarf and purse and hung them up on the coat rack. She walked through her house and poured her self a glass of water them made her way up stairs. She felt drained, tired and pleased that she was home. She entered her bedroom and saw her husband lying in bed reading a book.

He looked up as he heard her enter. He smiled when he saw his loving wife. He walked over round to her side of the bed, placed her drink on her bed side cabinet and lay down.

"How was work today?" her husband asked her

"More unusual then normal, but it worked out alright" She replied

He kissed her check, I'm glad your home.

"Me too"

She quickly change into her nightwear then walked across the landing to her son's room, she opened the door and saw him fast asleep in bed. His lamp was still on at his desk. She walked over and clicked it off. Then she sat on her son's bed and watched him sleep for a few moments. She smiled to herself. She loved him so much. More then she ever thought she could love anything. The she stood up, kissed his forehead careful not to wake up, pulled his covers up to keep him warm and walked back to her husbands loving arms.

Kate unlocked her door and entered her apartment, chucked her keys on the kitchen unit and unbuttoned the coat. Danny followed behind her. He looked around the place, it was more or less bare with the odd box scatted around the place.

"Well I like what you've done with the place" he said hands in his pocket examining the rest of the apartment "I'll have to get the name of your decorator"

"Alright funny guy, it's a working progress. Now do you want the DVD or not?" she asked

"I'm sorry"

"What about your room mate where's she?" he asked

Kate opened a box and started looking through it "She's probably asleep she's got an early flight tomorrow"

"What she going on holiday?" he asked looking out of the big window

"No, she's an air hostess" then Kate pulled out 'The notebook' "Got it"

Danny walked over to where Kate was standing and took it from her. He scanned the cover

"Doesn't look very interesting"

She frowned "What's the saying, never judge a book by it's cover"

"But it's not a book" he stated

"It means the same thing"

He turned and headed for the door "What ever you say" he opened the door

"Have a good night Danny"

"Thanks" he went to walk away then stopped "Kate"

"Yeh?" she replied just before closing the door

"You did good tonight" he said

She smiled "You too"

He returned the small smile and walked away.

Kate turned around, switched all the lights off and walked into her bedroom.

Samantha lay in her bed, finding it hard to sleep. She couldn't stop thinking about Jack and the way he looked when he heard his daughter had injured herself. She flipped open her cell and found Jack's number. She wanted to check that Kate was ok, and that he was okay, or if there was anything she could do for him. Then again he and his family would probably want to be together right now, and if he needed her he would call. She missed him. She missed the nights they had spent together. When she was him she felt safe. She just wanted to hear his voice, but she would have to wait till tomorrow. Jack had taken a place in her heart, a place that had slowly ached since they hadn't been together. A place that no one else could take. A place that she wanted him to fill again. She sighed and plopped her phone back down. Then tried to clear him from her mind so she could get some sleep.

Each Agent sat reflecting the day's events; it was a pretty bad but at least they saved their victim, it was just such a shame that they weren't able to save the other twelve women before Vicky. But at least their families knew where their daughters or wife's were and were finally able to try and move on with their lives.


	7. Sing

Kate's alarm on her cell rang out it's cheery tune of birds tweeting, dogs barking and ducks quacking.

She rubbed her eyes and rolled over to shut it off.

"Stupid animal sounds" she groaned. Luckily she got a bit of a lie in this morning, they didn't have to be in till ten. Although it was quarter to nine now and she still felt fairly tired. She ignored the feeling and padded her way to the fridge to find something to eat. There was a small note left on the kitchen unit.

**Went shopping yesterday.**

**Stuff will be delivered at five.**

**Please be here to let delivery men in.**

**See you in a few days**

**Mickey x x**

She made a mental note in her mind 'Be home by five'. Then she turned and opened the fridge. She fancied some cereal. Pulled out a carton of milk. Opened a few cupboards found a box of Captain crunch, her favourite cereal. Michelle knew Kate's favourite foods, and always brought them for her when she shopped. She lifted the flap on the box and opened the plastic bag inside. Then opened a few more cupboards. When she realised, no bowls, which meant no spoons either. Well not until five o'clock tonight anyway. She sighed an unhappy sigh and popped the box back in cupboard and took a swig from the carton before putting it back in the fridge, normally she used a glass but under these circumstances an exception was to be made. Then she turned back for her bedroom and got changed from her very fashionable cardboard boxes.

It was eleven thirty and everyone was sitting at their desks filling in paperwork, everyone except for Jack and Danny. Jack they all knew was probably still at the hospital. He had called Vivian earlier this morning and informed her he would be in a little later in the day. Danny however no one had any idea where he was. He was never normally late according to the other that worked their. Kate was just finishing her account on what had happened the previous night when she heard some one singing coming from the other side of the floor. All four of them looked up to see a very happy Danny Taylor walking out from the lift and making his way towards them.

He walked into the bullpen singing his heart out.

"There she was just a walking down the street, singing ooo a diddy, diddy dum diddy do." Then he did the actions for the next line "Clapping her hands and stomping her feet, singing ooo a diddy, diddy dum diddy do."

The he leant over to Martin desk "She looked good" he nodded his head happily and sung the next line slightly quieter "she looked good" Then he skipped over to Vivian's desk and leant in front of her "She looked fine" then he did the next line slightly quieter again "She looked fine" Then he stood up straight and pointed over to Kate "She looked good" Then pointed to Sam "She looked fine" Then he shook his hips back and front for the next line which weren't the actual words but they could see why he used them "and I really made her mine" then he winked and sunk into his chair as happy as could be.

The four just sat there looking at him before Kate finally spoke.

"So I take it last night went well?"

"Oooooo yeahhhh. If you know what I mean" he replied with a wink.

"Danny. I think the whole floor know what you mean" Sam said sarcastically

Danny sat up from his chair to see other people on the floor still looking at him. He just shrugged his shoulders. Then he looked over to Kate

"And you. You are my little star. I think you'll it in really well here" he said

She just replied to that comment with a small smile.

Jack was standing behind Danny "Do you now?"

Danny turned round to see Jack towering above him. His smile faded slightly but he couldn't remove it from his face. "Hi Jack I was just saying… that erm I think that Caitlin will fit in well here because of her… her…"

Jack folded his arms and tilted his head to the side waiting for an answer. He was tired after spending the whole night awake with his daughter at the hospital.

"Her… spirit" Danny finally found a word. Granted not a very good one, but still.

"Her spirit?" Jack asked, he already knew what Danny was talking about. He heard his conversation from the lift but wanted to see what Danny could come up with.

Danny just nodded his head "It's a very happy spirit" Danny slowed down when talking realising how stupid he was sounding right now, then turned back to his desk and pulled out some paperwork.

Jack walked over to the big whiteboard which had been wiped clear the night before by Martin. Jack had been given a new case as soon as he walked through the door downstairs.

He put a photo of a small boy, no more then four years old, at the top and wrote his name by it. 'Thomas Jenner'.

"Alright we're going down to Lenny's play barn. It's a kids play place, has loads of ball pits, slides, stuff like that. Thomas Jenner went missing there exactly one hour ago. As soon as the parents realised they couldn't find him they informed one of the workers who instantly locked down the place. No one has been let out yet. They're waiting for us now. Get your jackets on, we'll take three cars down, Sam you're with me, Martin take Caitlin, Viv you've got Danny. Get down there as fast as you can, every second you waster means there's a second less we have to save him." With that Jack finished and headed out followed by the rest of the team.

Twenty minutes later three cars pulled up outside a little building. It stood on a little plot by itself. A brick building covered in kids posters, cartoon characters. At the top was a massive bright red sign with the yellow words on the front saying 'Lenny's play barn'. Then at the side was a little picture of a wooden barn and a chicken.

Kate wondered why there was chicken but she didn't bother asking her workmates yet, they had a job to do. They got to the front door, where an officer checked the i.d's and then they were let into a large play area. Full of bright lights, parents holding their kids close to them, children crying, screaming. They were scared and weren't quite sure what was going on. Jack called out a few words but the noise from everyone else was so loud nobody took any attention. After another two tries Danny stood on a table and whistled using his two fingers. All the sudden the room fell silent, Jack joined so everybody could see him.

"My name is Agent Jack Malone, I'm from the F.B.I Missing Persons Unit, and these people here are part of my team. As I'm sure you're all aware of a young boy has gone missing from this 'play barn'. In order for us to do our work and find him again my agents and I are going to need your full co-operation through out the procedures we have to carry out. I also have a forensics team here who will be taking your fingerprints to check you have nothing to do with this. After your fingerprints have been taken you will then be briefly questioned by one of the agents. After this you may then go home. However if you do not co-operate you will be slowing down the process and preventing others from leaving, also if we feel the need we will take you back down town with us for interrogation. Any questions?" he called out.

The room was still silent.

"Okay good. Now if every body could form an orderly queue in front of this table we will begin. Note to parents, please keep all your children by your side and do NOT let them out of your sight!"

With that said all the customers pushed their way to get to the front of the queue wanting to be the first to get out and go home. Jack walked back over to his team leaving the forensics team to set up and get started Cindy was there too. She was part of the forensics team and got called in. She sat at her table and set up her laptop on one of the two tables, the other had another forensic scientist on it ready to do the same job as Cindy herself.

Then she set up her scanner to take the prints from the person to the computer and she was ready for her first person. She looked over to Martin who looked deep in thought when he was disturbed by Jack walking over to his team ready to inform them on what they needed to do. Martin looked up from the ground and noticed Cindy looking at him. She blushed rosy red and smiled. He sent her a small smile back then looked at Jack. Cindy was a quiet girl, the kind you'd expect to work in a science lab. She had had a crush on Martin since he first day he turned up, but it was only recently she was sure that he liked her too. She took one last glance at the agent then turned round to call her first person over.

"Alright I want this case done quickly and properly. Do exactly as I say. I want this case do by the book you understand. I'm not letting another sick bastard back out into the world due to some technicality, we work hard, and we find this kid and send the sick son of a bitch to rot in prison. Firstly Vivian and Danny, you'll be questioning the parents after they have their prints done, anyone suspicious take them to one side and ask more questions. Any ones who's background doesn't check out do the same thing."

They both nodded and made their way to sit with the forensic scientists. "Kate you will be going to the back and check the surveillance cameras. Find out where they are and try and see what happened to the kid from the parent's statement."

She turned and headed for the back room.

"Sam I want you to call the local news, e-mail them a picture of the kid and give them the necessary information, tell them any useful information given will be rewarded"

"Okay" she replied then headed back to the car for some equipment.

"Martin you'll be questioning the staff, try and find if they remember any one suspicious things like that."

"Alright, what about you?" he asked

"I'll be taking a look around the premises, see if there were any other ways out that the kidnapper could of used"

Martin just nodded in reply and went off to start on his first employee.

Danny sat there with his fourth person, halfway through his conversation

"Let me get this straight you came to a kids play house without a kid?" he asked not understanding the logic

"That's right" the man replied

"You wanna tell me why?"

"My wife and I split nine months ago, and now I'm only allowed the kids once a fortnight so I thought I'd come and check out the place, see if it's any good. I don't wanna waste the one day I have with my kids if this place is crap do I?" he asked rhetorically

Danny turned to look at Cindy "Check him out"

She spent the next few minutes tapping away at her laptop and then the background information on this guy popped up.

"Mark Kyle, divorced, two kids, no previous convictions. He's clean" she concluded.

"Alright, you're free to go."

Mark Kyle stood from the table and walked out from the play barn, Danny looked down the line of the waiting parents. He sighed to himself, still god knows how many more to go.

Vivian sat at the table next to Danny with her forensic scientist. With her second person, this one wasn't of any interest to her but she seemed to take forever to get any sentences.

The woman had a stutter, Vivian knew it wasn't the woman's fault but this was an important investigation and every minute counted, however on the other hand Viv couldn't give up and send her home in case she saw anything important.

"So you didn't see any one at all go near this boy?" Vivian asked

"Erm… N…nn….nnn..nnoo. I don't thi..think so"

Vivian looked at the kids she had with her, their eyes were bright red and puffy. She leaned over to the computer and saw that her finger prints brought up nothing interesting.

"Okay, thank you for your time. You may go now. However if you do remember anything however big or small give me a call" Viv passed the woman a card who took it, picked up her youngest and left with the other two she had with her.

"Next" Viv called hoping that the next would be more helpful.

Kate sat at the desk in the back room with a guy wearing a bright multi-coloured chequered shirt and bright red pants, brown messy hair, in his late twenties with pretty bad acne. He smiled at her, she looked up from reading and noticed this, she briefly smiled back before looking back down at the statements from the parents. She scanned them looking for important.

"Okay so the mother said she saw the kid climb up to the slide at the back, but he never came down. Which means that's where he was probably taken. This was about ten thirty five. Have we got a camera showing that area of the play barn at that time." She asked

The guy was still starring at her

"If you could get your eyes of my chest and more on this case that would be great"

He snapped out of his gaze "Err, yeh sure sorry. There's a camera round the back which should give us the glimpse of the slide if I'm right" He clicked to a few different camera's, typed in a time frame and up popped a screen showing what happened round by the slide at ten thirty five. A few kids climbed up the slide, then slid down, followed by a few more, then a few more then a boy who caught her attention.

"Freeze that" She said, he did as he was told and she studied the face "That's Thomas Jenner, okay carry it on"

He clicked another button and the video continued, Thomas climbed up the stairs got ready to go down the slide then stopped. A man in a dark hooded sweater walked up behind him and offered out his hand. Thomas turned round said a few words then took the man's hand. The man picked him up turned away from the camera and headed down a corridor. Moments later a red alarm flashed throughout the camera's.

"Alright so the alarm sounded only minutes after the kid was taken. Where's that hallway lead to?"

"It leads into the corridor outside here along with five or six other rooms."

"Is there an exit out through one of those rooms?"

"Two, a delivery room where the trucks unload the food, drinks, toys stuff like that, and another one the staff use to enter or exit the building"

"What do you need to get through the door?"

"Erm… either a key or code number"

"And only the staff know this right?"

"Right"

"You got any more camera's covering those doors?"

"We got one outside the staff door, but not the loading one"

"Can you play that for me please around the same time"

A minute past after the kid was taken then the hooded man walked out from the door, still with Thomas in his arms. A large black SUV pulled up, the kid was shoved in, the window was wind down, the hooded man talked to the person in the drivers seat for a few seconds then the SUV drove off. Then Kate saw something she hadn't expected. The hooded man took his hood down, turned around, rubbed his head, heard the alarm, panicked and ran.

"Did I just see that right?" Kate asked not believing how easy it was to find who snatched the child.

He re-winded it and played it again for her.

"I'm gonna need this tape"

"Sure" he stopped the tape, pressed eject and the tape popped out. He handed it to her.

"Thank you, do you mind showing the door he used to get out?"

His smile widened and she shone her all his teeth, like he couldn't believe his luck, which kind of freaked her out a little.

He took her further down the corridor into a changing room where she found Jack studying the door, the one the kidnapper used to escape from.

"Jack, this is the door the kidnapper used to escape with, he snatched the kid from the slide and exited this way, where he handed the child to some one else in a Black SUV."

He looked intrigued "You get the license number?"

"No, I was going to take it back to the office get it check out with better equipment. But then the guy that took Thomas took his hood down revealing his face"

"So the person that took him was just a pawn for some one else?"

"Looks that way"

"Good" He walked over to the door and opened it, it opened perfectly first time.

Kate frowned and turned to look at the employee "I thought you said you needed a key or code to use it"

"Yeh you do, only to get in though"

She closed her eyes "So any one can get out, which means some one only had to use the front door, they could pay their way in, take the kid and do a runner before anyone noticed, he'd have no problem getting out of here"

Jack thought for a moment "Kate get your tape back to the office, take Danny with you to check out the face and bring who ever that is for questioning, see what he tells you then get started on the SUV."

"But Danny's still doing the parent interview" Kate replied

"Fine then, Martin should be finished by now take him"

"Okay" she nodded and left.

Jack closed his eyes and sat on one of the wooden benches going down the room. He sank his head into his hands and sighed. He had a case to work on, a pile of paperwork waiting for him at his desk which wasn't getting any smaller and a little girl waiting for him at the hospital. His eyes were heavy and tired, he needed to do all three as soon as possible. But first he had to deal with some one else's problem and find this young boy. Then he would be able to deal with the other two.

Kate walked out into the main play area and saw a long line still waiting for Danny and Vivian. She quickly scanned the room and saw no sight of Martin. She walked up behind

Danny and brought her head down to his shoulder.

"Hey sorry to interrupt" She said gently

He looked relieved for a few seconds away from this chaos. "Yeh what's up?"

"I need some one to come back to the office with me and find the kidnapper, but I can't

find Martin you know where he is?"

"I'll come back with you" He pleaded

She let out a small laugh "I'd really like that but Jack said you'd have to finish with your long line of parents first, and I don't think I can wait that long"

He laid back into his seat where the perfectly happy face he had on this morning had completely disappeared. "Yeh, Martin's round the corner talking to the chicken"

Kate stood up and frowned a bit "Chicken?" She said to herself

She walked round to the other side of the till and saw Martin talking to a large yellow chicken. She walked up to them and stood by Martin, briefly observing the chicken. A man in a chicken costume, had taken the head off which he was still holding in his hands.

"What's up?" Martin asked turning from the chicken man.

"How long will you be?" She asked seeming keen to be else where

"Couple of minutes why?"

"Great, hurry up. Jack says your taking a trip back to the office with me" She shone him a little smile then went and sat at a table waiting for him to finished.

He raised his eyebrows as he walked off, then turned back to talk to his chicken.

A few moments passed and the chicken had told Martin all he had. Then he took his head and walked off. Martin finished scribbling something in his pad and walked over to Kate who was watching his every move.

Their eyes meet and she squinted a little as if she was searching for some kind of little detail.

"What you doing?" He asked curiously

"Just thinking" she replied tearing her eyes away from his.

She stood from the table and headed through the doors and towards Martin's car.

"So what you got on your little tape Valentine?"

"I have the face of the guy who took him, and the car of which Tom was put into after being taken. What you got?" She knew he wouldn't have anything better then that

"I got a phone number" He replied starting up the engine

"You know some how I don't think that counts" she replied sarcastically.

He ignored the comment and they headed for the office.

"Alright thanks" Sam put the phone down to the last news station she needed to call and

went in a search of Jack to see if he wanted her for anything else.

She checked the rooms in the back when she opened the door to the changing room. She stopped when she saw him sitting the way he was when Kate left him, he heart sunk when she saw him this way. She quietly walked over and sat by his side. He raised his head for a moment, when he realised it was Sam his face seemed to brighten slightly.

"Hi" he said gently.

She wasn't really sure what to do, given their past and him telling her it was over between them not long ago. She gently placed her hand on his back.

"Are you okay?" she asked looking deep into his eyes.

He nodded "Just got a lot to do"

"Can I help you with any of it?" she really wanted to help him in any way she could.

"No, not unless you can solve this case, do all my paper work and fix my daughter's leg?" he asked still looking deep into his eyes.

They sent goose pimples down her back. She closed her eyes to knock the feeling back, to try and focus on the conversation.

"I could probably give it a try if you really wanted" she said lifting the mood.

He smiled "No matter what, you always make me feel better, how do you do that?"

Hearing him say this brought a smile to her face "It's what I'm here to do" She gently stroked his face. He went to lean in for a kiss or something like that when his cell phone rung and interrupted the moment. He quickly pulled away and stood up, opened his cell.

Sam sighed and left the room to let him deal with his call.

"Daddy?" the little voice on the other end said

"Hey sweetie, it's me"

"When will you be coming back Daddy, I miss you" she asked

"I'll be there as soon as I can"

"You promise?"

"I promise"

"Will you bring Mr. Snuggles for me?"

He smiled hearing her ask for her little stuffed bear "I will do anything for you, you're my little angel remember"

"Daddy, I love you"

"I love you too, I'll be there soon"

He clapped his phone together and rubbed his forehead.

Sam leant against the other side of the door listening to every word, deep down inside she loved Jack, she knew his kids would always come first, but she just hoped, just prayed that he felt something for her, no matter how small, just something.


	8. Shirt off solider

**Author's note:** Thank you to everyone for reveiwing so far especially tv-luvin-hottie! I am enjoying writing this story and i hope you enjoy reading

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**4 hours missing**

Vivian finished with her last parent and thanked the forensic she was with for his help. Danny did the same to Cindy.

"Look Cindy thanks for your help." He stood up to walk away when she stopped him.

"Erm Danny, do you know where Martin is? I'd like to talk to him" She asked politely.

"Errr… yeah actually I think he's at the office. Anything I can help you with?"

She blushed knowing he couldn't help her out with this, not unless he became Martin "No thank you, don't worry I'll find him later"

Danny nodded and walked over to Viv

"You get any one interesting?" He asked leaning over her shoulder looking at the paper she was holding.

"Nothing at all, you?"

"Nah, got a guy without any kids but what he said checked out, I've got his number and address thought just encase."

Vivian smiled weakly.

"You thinking about Reggie?" Danny asked lightly

"I always do on a case like this. I just think how awful the parents must be feeling, I mean if Reggie went missing I'd have no idea what to do"

"You'd come to us, because this is what we do"

Vivian smiled, Danny threw his arm around her shoulders and they walked out to the car to head back to the office.

The license plate from the SUV, and the picture of the snatcher were finally identified by one of the techs using some high technology computer equipment.

Kate and Martin sat in the bullpen with the new pictures they had, a clear close-up of both the snatcher and the number plate.

"Why do I recognise this guy?" Martin asked

"Because you've been looking at him for the last half hour?" Kate asked sarcastically.

He pulled a sarcastic face back then turned back to the picture. "No, I mean I actually recognise him, but I don't know why"

"Well on the number plate, I pulled up info on it. Turns out it was stolen three weeks ago. Belongs to a Tessa Williams who has been working abroad for the past four days, doesn't land back in the US till late next week."

"So she's a no go?"

"Afraid so" she confirmed "All we got now is your picture"

"Not unless Danny or Viv got any thing from the parents" he pointed out

Danny walked up behind him "Which was nothing" He took a seat by Martin "What you looking at?" he asked looking over at the picture "Hmm… Dyson Reynolds, he involved"

Martin stood up rather abruptly "Dyson Reynolds! I knew I knew him!" He turned round and typed away at his computer.

Kate turned from watching Martin to look at Danny "Who's Dyson Reynolds?"

"A complete low life. Heavily involved in drugs, will do just about anything for money"

"Yeh but snatching a kid's a bit extreme ain't it?"

"He's a druggy, he'll even do that just to get high"

Kate kept quiet for the next few minutes whilst the two men talked away whilst searching for Dyson.

Vivian joined Kate at the table minutes later.

"Hey, what you doing?" She taking sitting opposite her

"Nothing" Kate replied with a yawn

"We have a case on the go and you're doing nothing?"

"I'm waiting for Danny and Martin to find a Dyson Reynolds"

"Dyson? What's he got to do with this?" she asked curiously

"He's our snatcher, got the kid from the slide to the car"

"To what car?" she hadn't been told that the kid was taken by someone else outside.

"Dyson just took the kid from the slide, then took outside using the back door, where a stolen black SUV pulled up, Dyson shoved the kid in, the car drove off"

"So he's our only lead?"

Kate nodded "How come you were behind Danny, I thought you were coming back together?"

"We did, I just needed to phone my husband" Vivian said

Kate just smiled then they sat there in a momentary silence before Danny turned around and rolled back over to the big table on his black chair.

"We have a location for our Dyson, turns out he's back home living with mommy" Danny pouted his lips pretending to feel sorry for him.

Martin stood by Danny and chucked a fresh printed sheet on the table in front of them. It had a picture of Dyson along with his criminal record.

"And guess what else. He's only been out of jail for two weeks" Martin added.

"Desperate for cash, or maybe owed a favour?" Kate asked

"We won't know until Danny and Martin go and bring him in will we?" Vivian smiled at the two men.

Danny looked at Martin "I think that's a hint man"

Martin lightly nodded. Then in the silence they heard a loud grumbling noise. They all looked other at Kate who frowned and rubbed her tummy. She looked up to see them all looking at her and she blushed slightly.

"Yeh and maybe bring back some food" Vivian added again looking at Kate, who just nodded in agreement.

"Any preference pizza, Chinese…"

Kate interrupted knowing exactly what she wanted "Cheese burger please"

"Alright" Martin said taking his coat following Danny away from the table.

"So what do we do now, I mean we only have one lead which Danny and Martin are off to get so?" Kate asked looking towards Vivian.

"I don't know what you can do but I'm going to catch up on some paper work which seems to be increasing by the minute, you know I'm sure Danny and Martin add some of theirs onto my pile"

Kate laughed and turned to sit at her desk. She sat there in silence for a few minutes, then looked out the window for a while. Only ten minutes had passed and she was getting bored with nothing to do so she started tapping on the desk with a pencil. After only seconds Vivian could hear the noise beating away not far from her, and for someone who was trying hard to finish paperwork it was becoming annoying. She didn't want to sound rude or mean in telling Kate to stop so came up with another way to distract her from making any noise.

"Kate?" she asked looking towards to young brunette.

"Yeh" she replied instantly looking pleased to have something to distract her from boredness.

"I wouldn't mind a coffee if your not busy?"

"Absolutely, do you take sugar or milk?" Kate asked as she passed Vivian's desk.

"No sugar, little milk please"

Kate nodded at her answer and headed for the break room.

Danny and Martin pulled outside a small wooden house in Queens. It wasn't the best place they'd seen in the area but it wasn't the worst. The path to the door was clear at least.

They both approached the front door and Martin knocked against the white wood three times. After seconds a small black lady opened the door, only a few centimetres so she could see who was there.

"Yes?" she asked cautiously

"Mrs. Reynolds, It's Agent Taylor and Fitzgerald from the F.B.I" Danny replied flashing his I.D.

She opened the door much wider instantly recognising the names. They'd been round a few times in the last year.

"Oh of course, how are the both of you?" She asked politely.

She was podgy woman with black permed hair tied loosely back, wearing a pink dress covered in green and blue flowers with a white frilly apron to match. She had white powder down her arms and on her cheek, obviously baking.

"We're fine Mrs. Reynolds" Martin replied "We're actually here to speak"

But before Martin could finish his sentence a young black man, early twenties, walked up behind her and looked at the two men.

"Ma, who you talking to?" he asked but as he looked up he saw the two familiar agents. His eye's widened. He turned and ran through the hallway and into the kitchen.

Danny and Martin took off after him, knocking poor Mrs. Reynolds aside. They made it to the kitchen and he was gone, the back door wide open. They could see him climbing the back yard fence just jumping over to the other side. Danny headed after him and Martin ran back through the house, out the front and down the side into the alley that was round back, the alley that Dyson had just entered.

Danny jumped at the fence, pulled himself up and swung his legs over landing firmly on the ground the other side. He looked down one way, no sign, the other way, he could see Dyson in the distance taking a turning right into the street. He made his way in that direction. Seconds later he saw another man following Dyson, Martin. Danny turned the corner just in time to see Martin step onto a wooden box left in front of some one's house and leap onto Dyson knocking them both to the floor. They rolled a few times from the impact, by the time they had stopped Danny was there, he knocked Dyson back to the floor after attemping to get up and run again and handcuffed him. He turned to see Martin still on the floor clutching onto his shoulder.

"Martin, you alright?" He asked with concern in his voice.

Martin nodded and climbed to his feet. As he fell he had rolled across some broken glass. He looked to the floor where they saw a few big pieces of glass with small amounts of blood on the edge. Martin pulled his hand away from his shoulder and wiped the blood from it onto his coat.

"We'll drop you off at the hospital on the way to the office, get you checked out" Danny said looking at the shoulder through his coat and shirt.

Martin turned hiding it away from his partner "Forget, I'll sort it back there"

"Martin it could be…"

"It's fine" Martin interrupted defensively

"Alright" Danny backed off knowing it wouldn't be worth the effort trying to change Martin's mind. Danny bent and pulled Dyson from the floor.

"Dyson, how you been? Long time no see, what's it been two months?" Danny asked pushing him across the street back towards the car.

"Yeh, you don't write, you don't call, we were beginning to think you were seeing other agents" Martin added

"Shut your face man. You ain't got a clue about nothing"

Danny and Martin smirked at one another "You hear that Martin, we ain't got a clue about nothing" Danny mimicked

"We'll see about that, because we have a clue as to where you were this morning" Martin opened the car door and Danny shoved Dyson in. Then they both entered themselves and drove back to the office.

Vivian sat and signed another piece of coursework she had finished off and added it to her complete pile to file later on. She turned to see Caitlin sitting in her chair, legs crossed studying the ends of her hair. She must be bored out of her head Vivian thought to herself, at least Vivian had paperwork to do, Kate hadn't been here long enough to have any to complete. Vivian was trying to think of something to say when she heard a load of shouting coming from the lift direction.

"You ain't got nothing on me" Dyson shouted leaning his head against Danny's.

Martin interrupted the head bumping and slammed Dyson into the wall.

"Why don't you shut the hell up"

"What you gonna do about it" Dyson's hand cuffs had been taken off since entering the building.

Martin closed in on him "Why don't you do something to test me"

"I'll show you what I'm made of you mother fucker" With that Dyson brought up a hand and swung it in Martin's direction. Martin ducked away from the flying fist, as Dyson's body turned from the punch Martin took this opportunity to spin Dyson round further more pushing his front into the wall.

"You wanna try it again?" Martin asked pressing against his head.

"Get your hands off me" Dyson yelled struggling to get away.

Danny grabbed his other arm and they pushed him across the floor to the interrogation room.

He tried to argue again but Danny pushed him into the room.

"Now sit down, shut up and wait for us" Danny pointed his finger when talking then shut the door behind him and the two men head back towards the bullpen.

Vivian stood from her chair as they walked to their desks "I see you got him then"

"Yeh, knocked him mom aside, jumped a wooden fence, ran through alleys and…" Danny looked over at Martin "rolled over broken glass taking him to the floor"

"You what?" Vivian asked

"It's nothing" Martin replied as he took off his jacket, he turned to show them, there was a couple of slashes rips in his shirt across his left shoulder blade. There was a circle of blood surrounding it, which they could tell was fresh from the wet stickiness of it.

"Don't you think you should get that checked out at the hospital?" Vivian asked Martin closing up to get a better look.

"I already tried Viv, he won't go" Danny informed her.

"Alright, Kate go into the break room and bring out the first aid kit, clean him up, Danny and I will deal with Mr. Reynolds"

"Viv I can do it" Martin protested

Kate who raised from her chair stopped in her tracks not sure who to listen to.

"What? you can clean up your wound, which just happens to be on your back where you probably can't reach very well and you can't see all by yourself?"

Martin had no reply, he just sat in his chair defeated.

Vivian looked back at Kate "Go get the kit"

Kate made her way to the break room and found the first aid kit in one of the cupboards. She grabbed it and walked back to Martin who was sitting at his desk. By the time she had got back Vivian and Danny were already gone, obviously with Dyson now. She placed the kit on the table and put on a pair of latex gloves then looked over to Martin who was watching her.

"Alright solider, shirt off" She instructed with a small smile cocked to the one side.

He raised his eyebrows.

"I can't clean it with your shirt so you can either take it off, or I'll take it off for you" she was deadly serious, she was still the new girl and Vivian was superior to Martin so she decided it was best to do as she was told.

A small smile grew across his face.

He still hadn't moved, just the smile grew a little wider. She rested her hands on her hips and bit the side of her lip.

He broke the stare and stood from his chair. Slowly unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it off, he still had a white vest underneath.

"And the next layer" she pushed

He grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it over his head. He hissed with pain as he raised his arm moving his shoulder blade. She walked over to help him take it off. She lifted it from his hands as he pulled it off. As he lowered his arms he noticed that Kate had moved closer to lend a hand, she held the bloody vest in her hand and looked up into his eyes. Her eyes moved from his and down his body, she could tell he defiantly worked out, firm, well defined muscles by the looks of it. He watched her check out his body and then her eyes flickered back up to meet his. He didn't say a word.

She felt weak in the knees, and her legs trembled slightly. She broke the stare and walked back over to the table, he followed her over and sat in a chair which she pulled out for him. She wet a few cotton rolls with disinfectant and wiped them over the three slashes made in his back, gently and smoothly. His back instantly tensed up from not only the cold of the liquid but the pain of the disinfectant getting into his wound. It stung for a few seconds then the pain eased off as his body got used to it. She wiped it over a few more times then chucked the blood red cotton in the waste bin. She walked round the other side of him where the box was and messed around in it looking for something.

"You know you should really get it checked out" she said glancing at him.

"I am" he replied, she tilted her head to the side and sarcastically smiled at him.

"You know what I mean"

"Look what ever you do is good enough, I don't need to waste a doctor's time with little cuts" She found a gauze pad and some medical tape. Then she passed around to his back again.

"Okay firstly, you wouldn't be wasting a doctor's time, it would probably a change from all the drunks they get, and secondly they're not little cuts" she argued her point.

Now that the cut was clean she could see it more clearly. She gently stroked her fingers over it. She leaned in and noticed that they weren't that deep but still needed a gauze pad to stop the bleeding.

Martin could feel her fingers run over his muscular back. He closed his eyes and just felt the sensation of her fingers run across the wound. He sensed her lean in closely. He could feel her warm breath against his bare skin. Then she pulled away and picked up the gauze pad, placed it against him, pressed it on firmly and stuck it down with tape.

"Alright, you're all patched up" she said taking off her gloves and threw them in the bin. She took a seat in front of him and started to put everything back into the kit case, when Jack and Sam walked up behind Martin.

"What you two been doing, playing doctor's and nurses?" Sam asked with a cocked eyebrow.

Martin sighed and walked back over to his desk and sat there.

"Where have you two been?" He asked as he sat

"Finishing something off, what happened to your back?" Jack asked, he didn't seem very happy at the moment.

"Just had a little accident was all" he replied

"How" he asked again

"What is this, twenty-one questions?" he said sarcastically.

Jack repeated his question. "How?"

"I rolled on some glass whilst knocking Dyson Reynolds to the floor alright"

"What's Dyson done now?" Samantha asked not sounding surprised that he was back in this building.

"Wait, I thought he was in jail?" Jack said

"He was, got out two weeks ago. He was the guy that took the kid from the slide and put him in the car" Martin explained

Jack folded his arms, he didn't seem very impressed "What did he say about it?"

"He's in interrogation with Viv and Danny now" Kate informed.

"Alright, shout me when we find something new, I'll be in my office doing some work. Sam get to work on the black SUV see if it's been used in any other crimes over the past couple of weeks. Kate check Dyson's history see if he's done any thing like this before and Martin" Jack looked at his half naked agent "Martin you can put some clothes on" Jack turned and headed for his office.

The two women looked at Martin then turned to start on their work. Martin lent down and opened his bottom drawer. He moved a few things looking for a shirt then looked up at Kate and remembered he lent his last one to her. She just smiled weakly then spoke "I will get that washed and back to you soon" She said.

"Forget it, looked better on you anyway" Martin stood back up and walked across the floor and into the locker room.

"Sweet isn't he" Sam said looking over at Kate

Kate smiled for a second before replying "Yeh, I mean he seems stubborn but defiantly sweet" she remembered him telling her to be careful last night as she headed for the water, then him pulling her out of it minutes later, lending her his jacket because she was cold.

He re-appeared moments later wearing a light grey t-shirt to see both women smiling when he sat down.

"What?" he asked looking confused.

Kate turned back to the computer.

Sam just kept on smiling at him "Nothing, we were just saying how sweet you were"

"Really?" he shone her a cocky grin and leant back into his chair, which he instantly regretted as the pain shot into his shoulder.

He hissed in pain again.

"Yeh, you better watch that shoulder of yours" Sam said then turned round to the computer screen again.

Martin looked over to the new girl who was tapping away at her computer.

She felt a pair of eyes upon her "You want something?" she asked without looking up.

"Nope, you?"

She turned to look at him "Well I did want a cheeseburger, but I've curled over and died of starvation since then" she tilted her head to one side slightly and waited for a response.

He suddenly remembered he had said he would get her one on his way back.

"Right you want a cheeseburger, I'll go get you a cheeseburger" he stood up from the chair.

"You don't have to get me a cheeseburger"

"No, I said I would so I will"

"No I meant, just a plain burger is fine" she let out a wide smile, showing her gleaming white teeth.

"Alright" he looked over at Sam "You want anything?"

"A diet coke would be nice" She replied, not even bothering to look from the screen.

"A diet coke it is" he turned and left.

Danny sighed and pushed the picture back into Dyson's hands.

"Take another look, alright here is a pictures of you taking the kid, here is another picture of you putting the kid in the black SUV and here is a picture of you taking your hood down giving us a clear shot of your face. You know if you had of run before you took that down, we would be clueless right around now. So lets try this again shall we. Who was in the car, why did they want you to take the kid and where can we find them."

Dyson sat there and shrugged. Vivian looked at Danny, she could tell he was getting worked up.

"Okay Dyson we already have you for kidnapping so you're going back to prison no matter what, but if you give us the information we need we will cut you some kind of deal. Okay so I suggest you start talking." Vivian tried

"How long would I get if I didn't co-operate?" Dyson asked starting to warm to the deal idea.

"Oh I'd say around thirteen years right?" Danny asked Viv who just nodded.

"How long will I get knocked off if I tell you what I know?" he asked

"The more you tell us the more gets knocked off" Danny explained.

"Alright I'll tell you. I was down on the bottom of park avenue, I had to meet some guys there"

"When you say guys, you mean drug dealers right?" Danny asked

Dyson sighed "Right, when a man approached us"

"What's this man look like?" Vivian asked

"I don't know much he was wearing a dark hooded sweater, he was a white man, late thirties I think, dark drown hair, jeans, sneakers. Anyway he showed us a wad of cash, I mean a big wad. Said was mine if I did a job for him. I got in his car, we drove around for a while he told me what he wanted me to do"

"And what exactly was that?"

"Snatch a kid, a boy as young as possible, with blonde hair and blue eyes"

"Why blonde and blue eyes?" Vivian asked curiously

"I don't know man, your guess is as good as mine"

"You get a name?"

Dyson fished around in his pocket and pulled out a small business card and passed it over to the opposing agents.

"He just gave me this, said if I was interested I had to call the number on the back"

Danny read the front aloud "Erwin District attorney & co."

"You made a deal with a district attorney?" Vivian asked

Dyson shrugged

"This is all you can tell us?" Danny asked

Dyson nodded

"You don't know what the kid was for?"

Dyson shook his head "Nah man, I told you everything I know"

"Alright then" Danny and Vivian both stood up and walked out.

Danny and Vivian walked back into the bullpen.

"Alright guys, we got a fresh lead" Danny said clasping his hands together with a big smile.


	9. Where's my son?

**Author's note: **Thanks for great reveiws so far, i love reading them. Haven't been able to write over past week due to exams, but hope you like this chapter, will be posting again soon.

* * *

"What you get?" Sam asked looking up from her computer screen

"Turn out a man approached Dyson the other day making him the offer of snatching the kid for a sum of money. Turns out he gave Dyson a business card with a number on the back, a business card for Erwin district attorney & co." Danny explained

Sam eyes widened when she heard the name "I see"

Kate wasn't quite seeing what they were seeing "What's Erwin district attorney & co"?

"They're the biggest law firm in New York, they have the best lawyers in the near states, pay high salaries, I mean major high and defend half the criminals we catch" Vivian informed

"Oh", Kate nodded "well did Dyson get the guy's name or a good look?"

"No name, we got a sketch artist on their way in, Dyson's gonna try and give his best description, see if we get a face familiar to the firm" Vivian said

"So we waiting on the artist then?" Sam asked

"We haven't got anything solid to go into Erwin's for, if we have a face and the card we have a better chance of finding him."

"What about the number on the back?" Kate asked

"I'm going to run it in the computer now. Where's Martin?" Asked Danny looking round noticing his friend wasn't present.

"Out getting some food" Sam answered

Danny rubbed his chin gently suddenly remembering that was something else they were meant to do on their way back "Oh yeah" he shrugged off the thought "Oh well, what you two up to?"

"I am checking if the SUV has been in any other crimes in the past couple of weeks" Sam answered.

Vivian looked over at Kate who closed down the folder she had open.

"And I was checking to see if Dyson had done anything like this before, which he hadn't. Just about everything else which have all be for either drugs or money."

"That's a shock" Viv said sarcastically.

Kate leaned back into her chair and moaned "I'm so hungry"

"Martin should be back soon" Sam replied

"I hope so or else I am seriously going to starve"

"You starve?" Danny laughed to himself "Come on Martin told me how much and how quickly you ate yesterday"

Kate just replied defensively "Hey, that meal counted for my breakfast and my lunch"

They heard a ding from the elevator and the strong whiff of food filled the floor.

Kate instantly shot her head up looking for any sign of Martin, the carrier of her food. Seconds later he walked into the bullpen and placed a load of food on the table.

Kate jumped from her seat and stood by Martin as he put the food down, he had quite a selection, few burgers, couples of fries, a hotdog, can of diet coke and a box of doughnuts to finish off.

Martin looked at Kate who's eyes were wide, he bet if she opened her mouth drool would just fall out. He picked up a burger and passed it to her in a little wrapper

"Cheese burger like you asked, and I got you a diet coke to" He passed her the food.

"You got no non-diet coke?" She asked

"Oh god I can't win can I, I thought if I got you a normally coke you'd moan cuz you wanted a diet or something, that's what I'm used two off Sam and Viv"

"Why do you think I need diet?" She asked looking down at herself.

Vivian looked at Kate's body and laughed "Are you kidding me any thinner and you'll disappear. What are you a size two or smaller?"

Kate nodded.

"Thank you" she said to Martin taking the food then returned to her seat.

Another half hour passed and the sketch artist finally came out from an office with Dyson.

She handed the picture to Vivian "This is what we ended up with"

Viv took the picture "Alright thank you for your time"

The woman smiled and walked off.

The rest of the group gathered round to look at the drawing.

"So now we can go to Erwin's now?" Martin asked.

Jack walked out from his office and straight to his team. They quickly filled him on and he thought for a moment what to do then instructed his team "Alright I want Vivian, Samantha and me to go to the Erwin attorneys" he paused and looked at his other three agents not really sure what to do with them "You three run the number found on the back of the card, see if you can find anything about it, if you do give me a call, if not work on your paperwork or what ever else you need to do, there's nothing else you can do for this case until we get back anyway"

Danny nodded "Alright, we'll get on it"

Jack nodded and headed off with the two women agents.

Danny sat back at his desk and started dialling in the number, Kate and Martin stood by waiting for the ring.

Seconds later the phone number had been typed in and was waiting for a pick up on the other end.

It rang a couple of times then it stopped, the answer machine kicked in.

"You have reached Allan Rogers, I am unable to reach the phone at the minute but if you leave your name and number I will try and contact you"

"Allan Roger's our guy then" Martin said

"Looks like" Kate sighed

"You don't sound so happy about that" Danny said looking at her confused

"No I am, but he just sounds so normal, I mean he sounds like your typical guy who has a nice big house with a wife, kids and a dog with one of those white picket fences, the boring kind"

"Some times it's the one's you last expect" Martin replied "Alright now check his record"

Danny tapped away for a few more minutes then brought up a sheet for Allan Rogers.

"He's completely clean, not even a parking ticket" Danny said

"Alright, call Jack"

Danny quickly called Jack and gave him the name they found. Then they sat around the table.

"What do think he wants a little boy for?" Kate asked

"I don't know, maybe he's a paedophile, prays on young boys, was having trouble getting one so he paid Dyson to help him out" Danny said

"Or maybe he's the kids real father" Martin pointed out

"Yeh but the parents never said anything about him being adopted or some one else's kid"

"Maybe the dad doesn't even know himself. She could have easily had an affair"

"Maybe he does a baby selling business" Kate added as an idea

They both stared at her. "What come on little kids that look like him are like the perfect child to some people, the blonde hair and blue eyes"

"Why are they the ideal child, just because they're blonde and blue?" Danny asked confused

"Exactly" Kate said

They looked at one another. Then Martin turned back to face Kate "Care to elaborate there?"

"Think about it, back in Shakespeare's time, what was that around 1800? Anyway back then no matter how ugly you were if you had blonde hair and blue eyes you were considered beautiful, then again in world war two. If you weren't blonde and blue you were killed because they were considered the perfect race"

"Yeh but don't you think that's a bit extreme?" Danny asked

"Extreme? Danny last night we went after a woman who believed in vampires, now that was extreme" She stated

"She's got a point there" Martin said "But we'll have to wait before we do anything else"

Martin and Danny turned to their computers to try to get on with some more paperwork whilst they had some free time.

Kate sat there in her seat again with nothing to do. She looked at her watch which read 4:49pm. It had been a fairly long day and she still had a fair few hours to go before she could go home. There was something in the back of her mind, something she knew she had to do but couldn't remember what it was. She sat there for a few minutes but couldn't remember what it was. 4:54pm she started browsing through some open missing persons cases, she read one, a man 34, white, two daughters and a wife, last seen doing a delivery on 23rd avenue.

"Delivery?" she remembered something. Then it clicked. She quickly checked her watch which said 5:03pm.

"Shit!" she said to herself, she quickly stood from her chair and shoved a coat on.

"Where you off?" Danny asked watching her put her coat on hurriedly, this also caught Martin's attention.

"Err… I just gotta go home to do something, I'll be back as soon as I can"

She hoped that was a good enough explanation for now and ran for the elevator, whilst waiting in the elevator she snapped out her cell and call her building to asked the receptionist, Darren, if he could let the delivery men into her apartment so they could start taking stuff in until she arrived.

Martin and Danny looked at each other, Danny shrugged and went back to work followed by Martin.

Jack, Vivian and Samantha entered the large, spacious, clean, expensive building. It was black tiled floors, dark wooden counters with marble desktops where the several receptionists sat, the walls were a cream colour with little white lights running across the side. There was four security guards, two by the main entrance, two a little further back near the reception area. The reception was in the centre of the ground floor and there was four lifts, two either side set a bit farther back into the wall. The front of the building was pure glass, not just big windows in the walls, the walls were the windows. The three agents walked straight up to the reception and caught the attention of the only free one at this moment in time.

"May I help you?" she asked politely.

Jack raised his eyebrows and began "My names Agent Malone, this is Agent Spade and Johnson. We're with the FBI" he opened his coat to show his badge "We need the office for a Allan Roger"

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No, we just need to talk to him"

"Well I'm sorry, you need to have an appointment before you speak to any of our employees" she smiled brightly as if she had achieved a moment of glory.

Jack started to get a little pissed "I don't think you understand, he is a critical part in our investigation and if you don't tell me what floor he's on then I will open every god damn office in this building until I find him"

"Again, I'm sorry sir, but you can not talk to any of our employees with out an appointment, you are however allowed to call him and arrange one for a later date"

Jack slammed his hands on the desk top "God damn it woman, you are preventing a federal agent from doing his investigation without any legal reason to, I now have the power to arrest you if you persist with this bullshit, do you understand?"

Samantha and Vivian looked at each other, they knew it wasn't the nicest way to do things, but it got the job done every single time.

One of the security guards had noticed Jack slam his hands on the table and had walked over to check if the receptionist was alright.

"Is everything alright Linda?" he asked

Samantha pulled out her FBI identity card. With seeing this he knew he had no business here and back away.

The woman's smile had disappeared from her face and she now looked scared.

Jack still hadn't received an answer "I asked you a question" he pushed

The woman held his glare for a few moments then tapped away at the computer screen in front of her, then she looked up "You can find Allan Roger's on floor twenty-four, office number four-six-two"

Jack didn't bother saying thank-you to her, he just turned and headed for the elevator, followed by his two agents.

They arrived at the twenty-fourth floor and searched for office four-two-six. They found the office, when Vivian went to open the door a young man, early twenties stopped them.

"Excuse me, can I help?" he asked

"No, we just need to speak with Mr. Rogers" Vivian informed

"Well he's not in today" the man told them

"What do you mean? Is he in a meeting?" Sam asked

"No I mean he didn't turn up for work this morning"

"You're sure?"

"Yes, I'm his personal secretary, I've been here since eight thirty this morning, he hasn't been in all day, he hasn't even called"

"Do you know where I can find him?" Jack asked joining the conversation.

"The only place I know him to go is home, or to his apartment down the road."

"He has a house and an apartment in the city?"

"No, his house is in Buffalo where his wife and kids live, he uses the apartment in the week when he's at work. Is he in some kind of trouble?"

"Maybe" Jack said

"You have to understand he's a great man, he is, but lately he's just not been himself."

"Why's that?" asked Vivian

"Seven months ago he lost his youngest son, Liam. That kid was Allan's life, all their other kids were girls and all he wanted was a little boy. When he got Liam he was so happy. Every week he used to buy Liam a little toy truck or something of that kind."

"Do you mean Liam disappeared or died?" Vivian asked now starting to feel sorry for Allan.

"He died, he had a serious condition of leukaemia, he died before the treatment started to kick in. Allan's been in pieces ever since. Look" the young man opened the door to Allan's office and showed them a picture of Allan's family, it was Allan, his wife, four girls and a little boy at the front.

Sam looked closely at the boy, blonde hair, blue eyes. "How old was Liam when he died?"

"Erm… four I think"

Sam looked at Vivian and Jack "Blonde hair, blue eyes, under five. Sound familiar to you two?"

Jack clicked onto what Sam was getting at "He's finding a replacement for his loss" he looked back at the man "We need his apartment address, home address now" he ordered

"If it helps Allan keeps a spare key to his apartment taped under his top draw" The man informed then ran off to get what he was told.

Vivian opened the top draw and found a little silver key taped to the bottom on the draw.

"We got one apartment key" she confirmed.

An hour later they arrived at a large building, very posh. It looked more like an expensive hotel then a apartment building. Vivian looked at the sheet with the apartment number on. "He has the penthouse apartment, top floor"

"Then I guess we're going to the top then" Jack said

Sam came off of her cell "That was the wife, she hasn't seen Allan since he left for work early Monday morning, although she did talk to him last night, she said he seemed nervous about something but he wouldn't say what, just that he had a surprise. She's on her way down to the city now"

Jack looked at his watch which read ten past six, he sighed. "I promised Kate I'd be back by now"

"Don't worry Jack, I'm sure you'll be there soon" Vivian said and patted his back gently.

Minutes later they arrived at the top floor and were alerted by a little ding. The door's opened to a small room, marble floor, red walls, a little wooden table with a vase of flowers on and a white door at the other side about two meters away.

Sam went to knock but Jack held her hand to prevent her from doing so. She looked at him confused.

He whispered lightly "If he's in there I don't want him to know we're here. If he panics he may hurt the child and I want to get Thomas out of this alive"

Sam nodded. The three agents pulled out their guns and Jack quietly opened the door. They crept in slowly and quietly, each in turn checking the rooms. Vivian twisted the knob of one of the doors and quietly opened it, she saw inside a man lying on his side, facing away from the door. She signalled over to Jack and Sam that she had something. All three entered the room and surrounded Allan. The other side of him his had Thomas Jenner, the both were silently sleeping. Jack signed with his hands for Vivian to carefully grab the child and leave the room. She nodded okay, put her gun to her side holster and leaned in towards the child. Carefully she picked up Thomas and pulled him to her chest, keeping his head close to her body, encase he woke up and alerted Allan that something was wrong. Safely having the child in her arms she turned and quickly made her way out into the living area.

With Thomas out of the room, Sam and Jack both had the guns pointed at the sleeping Allan.

"Allan Rogers" Jack shouted.

The man shot up from his sleeping position and frantically looked around the room. He instantly realised Thomas wasn't there "Liam? Where's Liam? What have you done with my son?" Allan shouted at Jack.

With Allan's attention on Jack Sam seized the opportunity and grabbed his arms together and hastily put a pair of handcuffs on him.

"Liam!!!" Allan shouted even louder "Where's my son"

"He's not your son Mr. Roger's. You and I both know that, you paid Dyson to steal him from some one else" Jack shouted back

Allan shook his head repeatedly "He's my son, I want him now!" he ordered

"He is not your son, he is the son to a Mr. and Mrs. Jenner, the people you stole him from.

Allan refused to believe him "No, your lying he is my son"

"Mr. Roger's you are under the arrest for the kidnapping of Thomas Jenner on the twenty-eighth of October" Sam said pushing him into the living area.

Allan saw Thomas who looked a scared young boy, Allan struggled harder to try and escape the two agents holding him "Liam, come to daddy, come on. Please"

Tears started down his face "Liam!!!"

"You have the right to remain silent, anything you do say could and will be held against you in the court of law" Jack continued pushing him into the elevator.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked in between sobs "I just want to hold my son, my little boy, my little Liam"

Allan looked at Thomas one more time and then the doors closed on the two agents and Allan Roger's, Vivian sat trying to calm a crying Thomas Jenner.

Sam and Jack had taken Allan down to the prison where he would be held until his trial and Vivian had taken the son back to the office with her.

When Vivian called Martin and Danny to let them know the situation they called the parents who came and waited in the bull pen with the two male agents. There was silence in their office area, every time the elevator doors opened the two parents would stand up in hope that it would be their only son, their only child. Finally the doors opened and Vivian walked through with a little blonde boy holding her hand, and sucking his other thumb. As soon as the two parents saw their son they ran cross the floor and swooped him up into their arms. They hugged him tightly and kissed him over and over again. They pushed him gently away to double check it was their son and then began kissing and hugging him again.

"Oh Thomas we love you so much" The mother said bursting into tears. They stood and turned round to the three agents smiling at them.

"Thank you, so much" The father said "I have no idea what we would have done" The mother walked over and hugged Vivian tightly

"Thank-you" she repeated her husband.

The family spent another few minutes saying thank-you before they left.

The agents returned to their desks "It always seems so worthwhile when it's a happy ending" Martin said walking over to the window

"But never when you don't find them or you do but it's not what the family hoped for" Danny added joining him.

Vivian walked up beside them and took the pictures of the boy off of the white board "He was just a father that lost his son, and didn't know how to go about dealing with it"

"Yeh but still, you don't go and steal some one else's kid though" Danny added

"As far as Allan was concerned Thomas was his kid, he was so convinced of it, you should have seen him. If I didn't know what I knew I would have believed him"

"I guess" Martin said.

Vivian looked round and noticed the new agent was missing "Where's Caitlin?"

Martin and Danny both shrugged.

"She had to run home for something" Danny said

"What?" Vivian asked

"She never said, she just took off and said she would be back in about an hour" he looked at his watch "That was little over two hours ago"

"She probably lost track of time" Vivian said in her defence. "What do you two make of her?"

"She seems like she's settling in well" Danny said

"Yeh but don't you think she's a bit peculiar, like different?" Martin asked his colleges.

They both shook their head "I don't know what you mean?"

"Like she's full of little secrets, she's like a puzzle that's missing a piece, like you can't quite figure her out, a complete mystery"

They both looked blankly at him.

"Just me?"

They nodded.

"Okay, I'm going to head home; I have a husband and a son to feed. I'll see you both tomorrow" Vivian turned grabbed her coat and left.

"You wanna grab a drink before you go home?" Martin asked

"Sure but I can't be long, I gotta meet some one later"

"Oh right, your mystery woman?"

"Hey she's no mystery, she just hot" Danny stated before they left.

Kate sat at home leaning against her front door, he sighed heavily looking around. How much stuff did her room mate order she wondered to herself. She got up and walked into the living room. It was completely jam packed full of boxes, big and small, long and thing, little and fat. Boxes which has pictures of saucepans on the side, ones which had a black image of a TV, a big black leather sofa and two black leather arm chairs covered in clear plastic. There was mattresses, what looked like a picture of a HI-FI sound system and absolutely loads of other boxes. Kate couldn't be bothered to go through this right now, she rubbed her fore head, slipped her coat back on and left her apartment, out to look for a place she could sit down have a meal and a nice long cold beer.

It was late and the hospital was dark and quite. Jack sat in the child's ward, next to his sleeping daughter's bed. His wife had gone home with his other daughter when he arrived. He sat in a chair with a little head light above him lighting up paper work he was filling out. He looked over to his daughter who was sleeping silently like a little angel. He was is need of a coffee, he put his work to the side and lent over kissed his daughter gently on the forehead and went in search of a coffee. He come back minutes later and sat back in his chair, he sipped his coffee and watched his daughter sleep, watched her breathe in and breathe out. He smiled to himself; he was one of the luckiest men alive to be blessed with two beautiful daughters like his. Time passed as he sat there, silently in the dark.


	10. Crosswords

Vivian kissed her son on the head gently then watched him run into school with his friends, he was twelve years old going on thirteen and didn't she know it, obviously hitting puberty, regular mood swings, spend all night in his bedroom on the computer talking with his mates, and so she'd been told by a friend this was only the start. Vivian smiled gently to herself and climbed back into her car then made her way to work. About ten minutes she climbed back out her car in the FBI unit underground parking lot seeing Danny and Martin in the lift about to go up. She speeded up her pace.

"Hold the lift guys" she shouted making her way across the lot.

"Why? What happens if we don't?" Danny called back jokingly.

"A smack round the head for the both of you" She wasn't joking

They looked at one another and Martin stuck his hand out to prevent the doors from shutting.

"There you go my lady" Danny said grinning widely.

Vivian looked at him curiously then turned to Martian "What's up with him?"

Martian shook his head "Don't ask, he's been like it ever since I picked him up, I'm thinking it's got something to do with his mystery woman" Martin smiled and nudged Danny in the side.

Danny laughed and elbowed him back.

The doors dinged and then opened up onto their floor.

Vivian lead the two men out and round to their working area, there they spotted the new girl fiddling around with what looked like to be a powered screw driver.

"What an earth are you doing?" Vivian asked looking puzzled as to what she was doing with one of those.

She looked up and seemed surprised that there was three agents staring at her.

"Oh hey. I was just trying to get it to work" She replied

"No I think she meant what are **you** doing with one of those at work?" Martin asked.

"Well" she started fiddling with the screw driver again "All our furniture got delivered last night, all it all came flat packed, from table to bed, to cabinets, to shelves basically everything you would have in an apartment except for clothes, food, books and films. I think my room mate went a little over board. Anyway I'm not that good at wood, or anything along the lines of putting stuff together, so I went down to Mr. Fix-it down the street from here and got a quote to see how much it would cost for him to put everything up, but he said something ridiculous so I went to the hardware store a few blocks down and picked up this stuff because I decided I'm gonna do it myself" She smiled as if she seemed pleased with the idea.

"What?" Danny sounded confused

"Why, you don't think I can do it?" She asked

"No not that, I meant why did you go to the hardware store which is a couple of blocks away when there's one five or six doors away from this building?"

"There's a hardware store a couple for doors down?", they could tell by the tone of her voice she defiantly didn't know that.

Vivian nodded.

"Anyway back to the question before, no I don't think you can do it" Danny said taking his jacket off.

"Why not?" she asked

"Have you ever put anything together like that before on your own?"

"No, but that's not the point"

"Okay but how are you going to know what to do?"

"I'll probably read the little white piece of paper that comes with it and says 'instructions' across the top of it" she replied mockingly.

Martin smirked at her sarcastic comment.

Danny spent a few seconds trying to come up with a come back but he couldn't so he left it.

"Alright come on you three lets get to work" Vivian said turning to face her computer screen.

"Already done it" Kate said smacking the top of the driver with her hand.

"You've completed your statement on yesterday already?" Vivian sounded surprised.

"I did it as soon as I got into work this morning"

"And exactly what time did you get into work this morning?"

"About five, did my work, then went down the street to fix it, then the hardware store and back"

Vivian raised her eyebrows, five? She thought to her self, the girls gotta be mad!

Martin spent a couple of minutes on the main table next to Kate filling in some paperwork and all he could hear was her clicking and tapping things.

"Seriously, what are you trying to do to that screw driver?" he asked looking up at her.

She paused and looked back at him "I'm just trying to get it to work, I've been trying for the last hour, I put it on charge and everything. I think it's broken"

He held out his hand and she gave him the screw driver, with in seconds he pulled the trigger and it made the sound of a working screw driver. Her eyes widened and she seemed surprised at how quickly he had done it. She pulled the trigger herself and again it worked.

"How the hell did you do that?" she asked

He had to stop himself from laughing at how simple it was, he pointed to a little red button on the top "You had the safety lock on. You have to turn it off when you wanna use it"

"Ooohhh, so it's not broken"

He shook his head "and you're seriously thinking of putting everything together your self?"

"Well I'm gonna try anyway, try and save a couple of hundred bucks, the amount my room mate spent on everything I'm gonna need to."

He smiled at her then turned back to doing his paper work.

She put her things away then watched the other three agents work, she leaned over to Martin "Do you need any help?"

He looked back up to see Kate looking a little bored, she's had nothing to do for a couple of minutes and she's bored, got knows what she'd be like on a flight to the other side of the world he thought to himself. He shook his head "No"

"Okay, a coffee?" she asked again

"I could drink a coffee" Danny said calling out from his desk overhearing the conversation.

"Viv, you want one?" Kate asked standing from the seat

"Please"

"And me" Martin said.

"Alright" she replied and made her way to the break room but stopped off in the ladies room to use the toilet. She went into the cubicle , turned ready to flush it when she heard another woman talking. She stopped instantly and listened for a moment.

"Martin, you've been here for a while now…" the female voice began.

Caitlin was instantly curious, she bent down and looked under the door to see one pair of legs standing in front of the sinks and mirrors. Obviously practising.

"Where was i? right oh yes. Martin you've been here a while now and over the time we've gained a friendship. No not gained a friendship that sounds stupid, you moron. Become close working partners. Yes much better. I have liked you for some time now and I was wondering if you'd like to go out for a drink some time, as a date type thing." The woman continued

Kate covered her mouth with her arm, encase she let out a small laughter. After a second curiosity got the better of her and she needed to know who it was. She flushed the toilet and opened the door. She walked across to the sinks and stood by the woman, she looked over and smiled at Cindy, the forensic scientist.

Cindy instantly blushed pure red, realising that Caitlin had heard everything she had just practised, she knew she should have checked every toilet instead of just assuming no one was in here.

"Hi" Kate smiled brightly whilst washing her hands

"Hello" Cindy replied getter even redder "Look what you just heard was"

"Don't worry, I won't tell him, he'll be completely surprised when you asked him out for a drink, just don't call it a 'date type thing'." Kate smiled one more time the walked out.

Cindy was so embarrassed she felt a little angry inside that Kate had actually listened to her talking and given her advice on it, who was she to give advice, firstly she didn't even know Cindy or Martin for that matter. The new girl had certainly made a bad impression on Cindy even though Kate thought she was being nice by giving her the hint.

Kate made the coffee's and took them out to her fellow agents, she placed Danny's on his desk: "There you go 'sex bomb'" she said.

His head shot up recognising the name calling from a previous relationship.

"Where'd you get that name from?" he asked looking at her cautiously.

"Let's just say that there's message on your work phone which was left at around six thirty this morning"

"Danny looked at his work phone and the message light was flashing, he pressed the button and began to listen to the message:

"Hey Agent Taylor you Sex bomb you, I was just thinking about the last time we spent the night together and I couldn't help but think that you could maybe come round some time and I'll let you lick my…" The message stopped as Danny pounded his hand on the phone a couple of times trying to stop it as he already knew where it was going, he turned round to see the rest of the team looking at him, he blushed a little.

"Lick her what?" Martin asked leaning back into his chair.

"Never mind" Danny said quickly

"Oh no, but you wanna hear the next part, it gets even dirtier" Kate said

"Really?" Martin asked

"Oh yeh, she starts talking about chocolate and marshmallows or something like that. Lets just say the old man that empty's the bins left with a pretty big smile on his face." Kate informed

Danny rubbed his fore head, he couldn't believe some one had left a message like that on his work phone, any one could have heard that, no not just any one, Jack could have heard that.

The rest of the group smirked at one another then left Danny to blush on his own.

Then Kate sat and boringly surfed the internet looking for something interesting.

Another half hour later Cindy approached the bullpen and gently tapped Martin on the shoulder, he looked up from his work at her and smiled.

"Hey, what can I do for you?" he asked nicely, he was always nice around Cindy, mainly because she seemed like the quite type that you'd always feel really guilty around if you offended them in any way.

"Hi, Martin could I talk to you for a minute"

Danny, Kate and Vivian all looked up from their work at Cindy and Martin.

"In private?" she asked

"Errr sure" he got up from his chair and they walked off into the break room.

"What's that about?" Danny said looking at the closed break room door.

"Come on Danny, we all know Cindy's got a crush on Martin, you know when we tease him about it" Vivian said like it was so obvious.

"Yeh, but I never thought she'd act on it" he replied

Kate sat their smiling to herself knowing exactly what Cindy was going to say and that Martin would say yes because he seemed to nice a person to turn down such a polite girl.

"What you smiling at?" Danny asked her

She shook her head "Nothing"

In the break room Martin leaned against the wall waiting for Cindy to spit out what ever she had been trying to say for the last five minutes. She had babbled on for the last couple of minutes mentioning friendships, and how long he's been working here, and possibly something about cheese. He widened his eyes a little trying to stay focused on the conversation.

"Cindy what are you basically trying to say?" he asked looking confused at the last five minutes.

"Basically Martin I was wondering if…" her hands were sweating like mad, she was blushing and beginning to stammer on her words, could this be anymore embarrassing she thought to herself.

"if?" Martin pushed

"If you'd like to…" she couldn't do it, she was too scared he'd reject "If you'd like to help me with one of the puzzles in my magazine, well it's a cross word actually" Could I sound any more lame? She thought to herself

"Crossword?" he asked sounding puzzled by the whole conversation.

"Yeh I need the name of an American state beginning with A, seven letters"

"Arizona?" Martin said

"Arizona, yeh well done, I should have thought of that" she became redder "anyway thanks for your help I have to go and… erm… do some work" she ran off.

Martin came out of the break room and sat at his desk in the bullpen.

"So, what was that about?" Vivian asked sounding keen

"She wanted some help on a crossword" Martin replied thinking how weird it sounded in his head, the whole conversation, he knew it wasn't about the crossword, she's asked for private conversation a few times over the past month and has come up with some lame question part way through.

"Crossword? Sounds like someone chickened out again" Danny said

"Thank god" Martin added

"Why thank-god"? Kate asked

"Because she's not really my type"

"What, quite, brunette, slim, pretty, clever isn't your type?" she asked, she was slowly beginning to learn more about her colleagues.

"No they are, except for the quiet part, I mean I'd hate to go on date with a person who's mega quiet and really shy"

"Like Cindy" Danny added

"Like Cindy" Martin repeated

"Besides, she's not exactly pretty or slim is she" Danny added

"Well she's hardly ugly and fat" Kate protested

"I'd say closer to them two then the other"

Kate ignored the mean comment and turned back to her computer.

Five weeks passed and Kate and the team had gotten to know one another a lot better, it was the end of the first week of December.

Jack walked into his Bullpen where his team was sitting filling out some paperwork, it was about six thirty and every one was looking for ward to going home, it had been an extremely long week for all of them, they had never had so many cases in so short of time. They all looked up to see who it was then avoided eye contact with their boss knowing he had bad news for them and that they weren't going to be going home tonight for another couple of hours at least.

"Alright we got a woman gone missing, last seen fifteen hours ago leaving a masquerade party last night at around one thirty. Daughter of Kevin Heifer"

"As in the actor?" Sam asked becoming more interested

"That's right meaning you all need to be fully alert for this case. Rosie Heifer is our new Victim, grab your things and we'll head out" Jack finished.

The team did as instructed, which much moaning and disappointment in between, and all left the building together to begin some more overtime.


	11. The masquerade ball

**Author's note:** Hey thanks for the great comments and don't worry tv-luvin-hottie, there will be some certain moments later but i like to keep some suspense :) Please reveiw

* * *

They arrived at a large hotel right in the centre of Manhattan, the poshest most expensive hotel around. It had been hired for the week to host a series of masquerade balls for the rich and famous, in order to raise money for a number of different cancers. The previous night had been the Friday night, Saturday night, tonight, would be the last one hosted. Kevin Heifer was one of the actors contributing to the organization of everything, him and his daughter had turned up every night this week encouraging people to donate more.

They walked into the building and through to the ball room where it had been hosted. It instantly took Vivian, Kate and Sam's breath away. There was a stairway coming from both sides of the front wall joining to a much larger stairway leading down to the main floor, there was a balcony that surrounded the whole hall. The staircase rails where a dark wooden colours, a massive crystal chandelier in the centre followed by lots of other little ones scattered around the room. At the other end of the ballroom was a large set up stage where the band would be set up, according to the magazines it was one of the best jazz bands that had been heard in America. For a regular person to attend this would be 'a once in a lifetime experience'. They were guided by a guard to where a distressed Kevin Heifer was waiting, he was sitting at the bottom of the stairs with a couple of other men, his head hung low. Wearing a kings outfit.

Jack and his team approached the famous actor when Jack introduced himself.

"Kevin Heifer, it's good to meet you I only wish it was on better terms. My names Agent Jack Malone I'm with the F.B.I missing persons unit. Here is the rest of my team Agents Danny Taylor, Caitlin Valentine, Samantha Spade, Vivian Johnson and Martin Fitzgerald."

Mr. Heifer stood and held his hand out to shake Jacks. "Thank you for coming so quickly. I appreciate it"

"It's no problem. Firstly we are going to need to ask you some questions, they may not be easy to answer but we need to know as much as we can. My other agents will also question a few of the guards that were on the doors last night, I assume they are the same ones that will be doing tongihts shift?"

Kevin nodded

"Right also need to talk to her friends, do you know where I can contact them?"

"They are probably in the restaurant area, they're staying around here waiting on any news, there's just the two of them. Linda and Carly."

"They were with your daughter last night?" Jack asked

"They've been here every night so far"

Jack turned to face his team "Alright, there were two exits from this room, one in the far back corner over there, go down a corridor it leads straight out to a back alley, the guard that was on that one is a Warren Jones, Danny I want you to take him, Sam the other guard covered the second exit, which leads to the foyer, speak to him, he's Hank Lee. Vivian and Kate I want you to speak to her friends and Martin Check the cameras, there's none covering the actual exits but there are some covering the area's around it. I'll question Mr. Heifer. Anything interesting come some me immediately"

They all separated their own ways to find who they needed to interview.

Jack turned back to face the actor.

"Mr. Heifer can you think about any enimies you may have?" Jakc began

"I'm an actor, I've supported some organizations, I haven't others, I've employed some people, fired others"

"Alright I seem what you mean. What about your daughter any troubles there, school, friends, boyfriends?" Jack questioned

"I don't think so, she doesn't really talk to me about that stuff, I think she talks more about that with her friends then me. I'm not really sure how to talk to her about that kind of stuff you know. You have children Agent Malone?"

"Two daughters"

"You'll know what I mean then"

"Their not quite old enough for boyfriends yet, and ones on the mend from a fractured leg"

"Ah, well it's all for you to come. You see Rosie's mother passed away a few years ago and since then we've sort of drifted apart slightly and now all I can think about was the last conversation we had. We were talking about her going to college, and we had this argument over the stupidest thing and now all I can think about is how I never said sorry."

"Well I'll do my best to make sure you get the chance" Jack said

"So can you remember the last times you saw Rosie?" Vivian asked Linda

She nodded her head "I was in the toilets, some one had split a drink down the front of my dress and we went in there to clear it up" Linda explained

"What time was that?"

"Erm a little gone one I think. Then she said she was going to check on Carly. She'd been upset her boyfriend broke up with her a few days ago and Rosie wanted to check she was alright"

"Did Rosie have a boyfriend, or maybe any troubles with any other friends"

Linda shook her head "Rosie hasn't had a boyfriend for a good couple of months, and as for other friends, it's just the three of us. We do everything together"

"So you can't think of any one she may have fallen out with?"

"No, she was a nice person and everyone that knew her loved her."

Vivian jotted down her notes. Obviously some one didn't love her she thought to herself.

"Has Rosie seemed distracted to you at all lately, maybe missing classes or not seeing her friends as much?" Kate asked the second friend

Carly thought about it for a moment before answering. "She has seemed a little off over the past few days but I'm not sure"

"What ever you can tell us is helpful, no matter how small you think it is" Kate insisted

"Well there was this guy that she had been seeing, only like friends and she'd only met him a couple of times. But she said he's started to freak her out, like call her all day continuously. Then he turned up at school the other day, waiting for her outside of school"

"This guy have a name?" Kate asked

"I don't know, Rosie didn't like talking about it, but he looked old. I mean older then our age"

"Old?" Kate asked wondering what her definition of old was

"Yeh like thirty something maybe"

Great thirty's old now Kate thought to herself, she was only a couple of months off thirty herself and was dreading having a double digit age starting with three instead of two.

"How about his looks, did you see what he looked like?"

"No, not really he was pretty far away and I didn't really pay much attention."

"Is that all you can remember, what about the last time you saw her?"

"It was just after she came out of the toilets from helping Linda with her dress, and we spoke for a couple of minutes then she got a phone call. It lasted for about ten seconds no more, then she said she had to deal with someone out the back and that she'd be back in a few minutes, but she never came back. I just assumed that she'd hooked up with some one"

"Do you know who was on the phone, or which exit she went out of?" Kate asked quickly trying to speed things up.

"No, she didn't say who it was, but she left out of that exit over there" She pointed to the exit which had the guard Danny was interviewing.

"Can you remember exactly what time she went down through this corridor and into the alley." Danny asked the guard

"Yeh it was around one thirty, she asked me to let her out. I let her pass, she went down though the corridor out into the alley where a car was parked and never came back"

"What car?" Danny asked again

"Well I didn't actually see it but I saw the red lights shining on the wall from it, but it could have been a van or something like that"

"But you didn't see anyone else down there or follow her?"

The guard shook his head

"Alright thanks"

Martin looked at the third camera set outside the back alley showing one of the entrance/ exits to one end of the alley. He fast forwarded the tape until he saw something unusual. At 1:34am a black stretched limo speeding out of the alley, then skidding round the corner and out into the street. He re-winded the tape then played it again, the time frame fit, possibly his kidnapper. He paused the tape to write down the plate number but there wasn't one.

Jacks team all arrived back to him at the same time give or take a few minutes, Martin was last to arrive. Danny Kate and Martin all wanted to say what they had first, but one got in the way of the other.

"Jack guess what…" Kate started.

"Yeh The guy I was talk…" Danny interrupted.

Kate stared at him "Hey, I started first"

Then Martin came up behind the both of them "Jack I checked out the tape" he stopped when he noticed Kate and Danny staring at him.

"What?" Asked

"You interrupted us" They said in unison, realising they said us they changed it "Me"

"Okay, well then ladies first" he said smiling at Kate

"Thank you" she shone him a smile back then pulled a teasing face at Danny. "Alright I was talking to one of her friends, Carly, and she said that lately Rosie had been hanging around with a man around thirty something, any way lately he had been calling her a lot, like continuously everyday. And last night just before one thirty Rosie got a call that lasted about ten seconds before she told her friend that she had t go and deal with some one and that she'd be back in a few minutes, but she never returned. So I'm thinking her kidnapper may be this guy" she said hopefully.

"Yeh well any way what I was trying to say goes with what Kate just said. The guard let Rosie out around one thirty am, she walked straight down the corridor and out into the alley, where he saw the red lights of some kind of vehicle…"

"That would be a black stretched limo, sped out of the back alley, skidded round the corner and out into the street." Martin finished Danny's sentence.

Jack finally got a work in between his employees "We got a name for this guy or a plate number for the limo?"

They all fell silent which was the exact opposite to what he was expecting.

"I'll take that as a no then, what about you two?" he looked to Sam and Vivian

"No, Linda was in the toilets wiping clean her dress when Rosie left her before leaving the ball" Vivian informed

"And my guard was on the other end of the room, so he can't remember seeing the girl all night" Sam finished

It fell silent whilst Jack was thinking when they heard a ringing coming from Kevin Heifer's cell phone sitting on the stairs. Jack had already connected a tracer to his cell encase the kidnapper called.

Kevin looked worried, he had no idea whether to answer his cell or what to even say once he had.

Jack noticed this and went to instruct him on what to do "Alright if it is the kidnapper, try and keep him talking for as long as you can, the longer he's on the phone the better chance we have of tracking him down."

Kevin nodded then pressed answer followed by loud speak.

"Hello?" he answered

"I have your daughter, now if you love her as much as you claim you'll listen up carefully to what I have to say" There was a moment of silence

"I'm listening" Kevin replied

"Good, now first things first, do not call the cops, I repeat do not call the cops. If you ever want to see your daughter alive again I suggest you arrange four million dollars to be collected from your account and put into a small suitcase, which will be left at the corner of the bar near the far corner exit at your masquerade ball tonight, drop it off under the green plant in the black pot at exactly midnight, where I will pick it up. Once I have the money I'll release your daughter" The phone went dead.

Kevin looked up to Jack "Did you find him?"

Jack shook his head after looking at the computer he was working on "No, all we know is he's somewhere in Manhattan."

"What's the chance that we'll find my daughter?" Kevin asked the team

"With most ransom calls there's a very high chance that we almost always catch the kidnapper" Vivian said trying to ease the actor's nerves.

"That's not what I asked, what's the chance that you find my daughter?"

"Mr. Heifer I need you to listen to me" Jack began

"Just tell me Agent Malone"

Jack closed his eyes and told the man the truth "In most case scenarios the victim is dead before the ransom call is even made. Now I know that's not what you wanted to hear but if your daughter is still alive then me and my team will do our best to find her and bring her back to you"

Kevin sat on the stairs again for a moment taking the information in. There were lots of people passing them, bar tenders filling the bars of alcohol and champagne glasses. The band was setting up on stage, the hotel owners were going round checking everything was in place reading for the evenings ball.

"What are you going to do now?" Kevin asked sounding hope full that Jack may have an answer

"My team and I are going out to find costumes to come back tonight and find your daughter"

The rest of Jack's team looked at one another then back to him.

"However Mr. Heifer" Jack continued "We will need some help from you"

"What ever I can do" he replied

"I need all of our names put onto the guest list so we can get in tonight without causing suspicion of entering through the back, and I will need an address of somewhere I can get costumes for four of my agents"

"Why only four?" Danny asked

"Because Martin's acting as a security guard with me, you Sam, Viv and Kate all get to dress up"

"I'll volunteer as a security guard" Kate said placing her hand in the air

"Yeh and me" Danny copied

"No I want you two with Sam and Viv walking across the floor, mingling with the rich and famous try and spot anyone that looks out of place"

Kate sighed, these kind of things weren't really what she was into, same went for Danny. Vivian and Samantha however loved the idea of being a proper lady for a night wearing the big gowns.

Martin smiled at Kate when he saw her sigh, he couldn't wait to see what his colleagues looked like.

Danny sat at the counter in a costume shop, browsing through little face masks that were in the glass case, he had already found his outfit, it was just basically how you would imagine a man would dress for an evening out in the early eighteen hundreds, the tailed blue jackets, the tight cream tights, with white socks rolled up to halve way up his shin, the black shoes with the silver buckles, the tight white shirt and some kind of blue velvet hat which had a black feather sticking out of the top. He was in one of New York's top costume shops, it was the one all the celebrities would use, Kevin paid for the shop keeper to open up late for them and rent them all costumes.

Vivian was already dressed in hers, it was a dark green and black velvet dress, she had the long sleeved arms, the puffy shoulders, quite a loose puffy top halve which then exploded into a big wide bottom half, like the proper old basket skirts that would stick out quite far all the way around. Then she had a little eye mask on a stick which she would hold in front of her eyes as she walked around the ballroom. Sam dress was similar to Vivian's in that it was a long sleeved dress, but it didn't have the puffy shoulders or top half and it was a deep red. The sleeves joined onto a corset waist then again like Vivian's she had the large basket like skirt. Now they were just waiting for Kate, who's only problem was getting something to fit right. First the sleeves were too long, the dress was too short, the corset was way too big. Until finally the man came out from the fitting room and smiled and clasped his hands together. He had a French accent

"Do not fear, Cinderella shall go to the ball because we have one that fits perfectly!"

"But Cinderella doesn't want to go to the ball" Kate called out from the changing room, really emphasizing on the doesn't want part.

Danny looked at his watch which read quarter past eight, they had to be there between half past eight and nine.

"Yeh and if Cinderella doesn't shift her ass we won't be there in time anyway" he shouted through to her.

"That's fine by me" she shouted back. "I look ridiculous"

The French man made his way back into the changing room and pushed her out.

The three other agents looked gob smacked at the sight before them. Kate looked at their opened mouths and turned to go back into the changing room "See I looked ridiculous" she whined. The owner grabbed her and stopped her from disappearing again.

"No, honey. You look absolutely beautiful" Vivian complimented her

"Yeh, what were you whining about, that dress is gorgeous" Samantha added

"You do look pretty damn hot" Danny said with a sided cocky grin

Kate rested her hands on her hips "Is that meant to be a compliment to me off Danny Taylor?"

"Yeh alright make the most of it, it doesn't happen often" Danny pointed out.

Kate stood there in her dress, sure she agreed it was the most beautiful she had ever seen but no way did she feel comfortable. It was a white dress, strapless, a tight corset top which had a lace cover and little sparkly gems across the top, then at the bottom of the corset it blossomed out into lots of layers of white fabric, making it as wide as Sam and Viv's. She looked into the mirror and smiled at the dress, I suppose it's only one night she thought.

Vivian tossed her an eye mask. This one wasn't on a stick it had a elastic bank around the back so she wouldn't have to walk round holding one she could just pop it over her head.

"Right then, can we go?" Danny asked bored out of his head, this was not his thing at all.

"Ah, no, no. Before the ladies leave for the ball I must do one more thing.

The French man fiddled around for a moment then brought out a box of make up and hair tools.

"Ah come on man, how longs this gonna take?" Danny asked

"Don't worry my friend, you've obviously never seen a French man at work before" and with that the owner began on the ladies make-up and hair. He curled Kate's long brown shiny locks then applied some dark shimmery brown eye shadow followed by the mascara, black eyeliner and a bit of lip glass. For Vivian he left her hair because it was already perfectly straight then he used the black mascara and eyeliner, a bit of dark red lipstick and instead of eye shadow he applied a bit of glitter to the end of either eye. Sam he curled her hair then twisted it round and up so a few strands fell down across her face then the rest hung loosely, he added some gold eye cream, and light brown eye liner, followed by a bright red lipstick to bring out the colour of the dress.

The man swivelled back on his chair and looked at his master piece, he smiled

"Ladies, you look ready for a ball"

He shone a mirror in front of them and they all gasped at how different they looked, and they were good gasps. Danny couldn't believe how pretty they could actually be, he knew all of them were already pretty but tonight they looked amazing, however he wasn't going to tell them that, they'd think he was a big softie else. They made their way to the door, then Kate ran back and grabbed her long black coat and pulled it over her shoulders. The all looked at her.

"What? I just don't want anyone to see me on the street, or at all for a matter of fact until we get there and everyone looks the same" She said

"Fine" Vivian said

They left the shop where a large black SUV was waiting to pick them up. They climbed their way into the car and within minutes of driving they had arrived at their destination. They looked outside of the window and saw a long red carpet leading to the entrance, a red rope either side keeping all the photographers from getting too close to the guests.

"Hey, is that Bruce Willis?" Sam asked pointing to a man climbing out of a limo in front of them

"Looks like" Danny said.

A minute later and the SUV moved to the end of the red carpet.

"At least nobody will be able to tell we not actual guests with the masks on hey" Kate said lighting the terrifying atmosphere.

"I say we get out and walk straight for the doors, who's with me?" Danny asked

"I am!" Kate agreed

A man from the outside in a tuxedo opened their door and helped t he ladies out, then Danny climbed out from the front.

Danny and Kate linked arms and practically power walked to the front doors.

"Names?" A large black man with a list of names on a clip board prevented them from going any further at the minute.

"Danny Taylor and Caitlin Valentine" Danny said quickly, he wasn't liking the attention in this kind of situation.

The man realised who they were "You mean you're the F.B.I?" he whispered

Danny nodded.

"In you go then, by the way Agent Malone told me to tell his team that your 'equipment is waiting round in the staff changing room"

Danny nodded a thank-you and they entered. The two waiting in the foyer for the other two agents who took their time making their way down the carpet, the actually looked like the famous.

Once they made their way inside they went and found the staff changing room, there they found a guard standing with a box of weapons and holsters.

"No this is my kind of thing" Danny said picking up his own gun. He took his jacket off and slipped on a shoulder holster, the jacket on top and the gun in the holster.

Kate pulled up her dress up to her thigh discreetly as possible attaching a leg holster to her upper leg, and inserted her gun, there nobody would see it. Samantha and Vivian did the same.

Kate looked into the mirror; she could only see her face, well part of it. Her eyes were surrounded by a small mask. It was the same size as an eye mask a person would use in bed but with two little eyes holes, enough of a hole to show off the French man's make-up. it was white with a lace matching her corset top. She took a deep breath and followed the rest of her team out towards the ballroom.

Jack and Martin Stood near the bar slowly walking around the room keeping an eyes out for anything suspicious, they wore the same clothes as the other security guards. Black boots, tight black top saying security on the back in white, black combat trousers, then a hip holster holding their gun. They felt pretty comfortable in their clothes, except Jack who had started to grow a bit of a belly. Martin looked up seeing two woman and Danny approaching the stairs, he nudged Jack to let him know they were here. Jack's breath was taken away when he saw the blonde, Samantha, she looked astonishing. She how ever wasn't the one Martin was looking for. The first three agents made their way down the stairs and still there was no sight of Kate.

Kate stood at the top round the corner she slipped off her coat and dropped it into a corner, she was wearing a little silver bracelet where a little microphone was attached, something her team mates had all attached to one another, something Jack had left them in the box. She also had a little earpiece in and she could hear Vivian's voice.

"Kate where are you?" she asked

Kate raised her wrist and spoke into her bracelet "I'm coming down now"

Kate walked down to the bigger set of stairs where the lights shone instantly into her face, she covered her face, then the lights dimmed down away from her and she could see much better now.

Martin looked back up to the stairs where he saw another woman, the fourth agent, he gasped as soon as he saw her. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. However Martin wasn't the only man's attention she caught as she began to make her way down the stairs.


	12. Masquerade ball part 2

**Author's note: **Sorry for the delay of this chapter but I couldn't think of what to write, when it finally came to me tonight i wrote it down as quickly as possible, hence any minor mistakes. It's not the best chapter i know but i hope you enjoy it! Please reveiw :)

* * *

Sam Vivian and Danny approached Jack and Martin, Kate was still further back so Jack started without her, he wanted his agents out searching for a suspect as soon as possible.

"Alright, Kevin has the money ready in the small black suitcase held in the hotel's volt, he'll collect it at five to twelve, set it down over there. Then I want each of you located at different points of the room keeping an eye out for the man who takes it. You see him you follow him, alert us. Until then walk around, try and mix with the people see if there is anyone that stands out. Martin and I will do the same as the other security guards we'll walk round do the same as you, just people will know who we are. You got that Kate?" Jack and Martin were both wearing headsets, making it easier for them to keep in contact, this was hopefully an easier way to instruct Kate on what to do rather then wait and explain it again.

"Every word" She replied.

After that the group split up and split into their own directions beginning to eye up any suspects that may catch their attention.

Jack walked up behind Sam as she walked away and gently said into her ear "You look good in that dress"

Before she had chance to reply he was gone, she had had trouble getting close to him over the past few weeks with Jack constantly being at home with his daughters. She felt maybe he was getting the message, that she still had feelings for him but that he was purposely ignoring them, to stay safe from getting too close to her again. She remembered the pain she felt when he spoke to her outside the courthouse a few months ago, just before she was shot in the leg, the words echoed in her mind 'Yes, we're over'. She closed her eyes at the memory, the gut pain she felt when the words entered her ears. She shook clear the memories and tried to concentrate on the job at hand.

Danny quickly adjusted his tights, he felt like a complete idiot wearing this costume, then again most other men were wearing the same kind of thing, but still. He walked across the floor, passing loads of celebrities, he couldn't help but smile when he saw some one from his favourite movies, such as Mel Gibson and Tom Hanks.

Kate walked across and sat at the bar, she ordered a coke and sat watching people as they passed. The band was playing and couples were dancing, laughing, kissing and generally being merry. She smiled to herself watching them together, when she heard a man's voice speak to her.

"May I have this dance?" He asked holding out a hand.

Kate looked round to him, he was dressed similar to Danny, only he was taller, was wearing a different hat and his long jacket was black. His mask covered the top of his face. It was a black mask with gold sequins around the edge. He had a strong jaw line and a well built body.

She hesitated for a moment then placed her hand in his, and he led her away to the centre of the dance floor. He pulled her closer to him, he rested his other hand on her waist, and she placed hers on his shoulder. A new song began, Stranger's in the night by Frank Sinatra. The man smiled

"Bit of an ironic song wouldn't you agree?"

"I would" she returned his smile, he sounded familiar but she couldn't place his voice "Where do I recognise your voice from?"

"Ahh, see if I told you that would spoiling the whole point of wearing the masks, right?" he said

"I suppose so, so I take it you're not going to tell me who I'm dancing with then?" she asked curiously

"Good guess. So what about you, should I recognise your voice from somewhere?" he asked looking into her eyes.

"No, don't worry you won't need to be guessing where you know my voice from, compared to everyone else here I'm practically a no one"

He frowned "Oh, I wouldn't say you're a no one, see if you were a no one you wouldn't have lightened up the room when you walked in"

She laughed at his reply "What a line, how many times you used that before?"

"None actually, that the first time I've used that line, but it was pretty good don't you think. I'm gonna have to write that down some where, use it next time"

She laughed at him "So how about a clue, are you from television, radio, or I don't know, something else like just a famous person we hear a lot of?"

"It's a bit of a mixture really" he replied, raising his arm, she twisted under it then he pulled her back. "How about you. If you're not one of the rich and the famous a name wouldn't hurt right?"

She spent a few seconds looking into his eyes contemplating whether to give her name then she decided "Caitlin"

"Does Caitlin have a second name?" he pushed

"She does actually yeh." She paused and he waited for it "It's Valentine"

"So Caitlin Valentine, are you having a good night so far?" he asked gently

"She is now" she replied in third person.

He smiled at her reply and they continued to dance.

Martin looked across the floor generally scanning people when he saw a fellow agent. He smiled when he saw her, Kate, she was dancing with another man. She was laughing and smiling. He watched her for a moment before moving across the floor keeping an eye out on other people.

Jack stood at one of the stair entrances and watched Samantha moved between the guests. She moved fluently, like she knew exactly where she was going and what she was doing. He had memories of the nights they spent together, a year ago now. The thoughts filled his head and he momentarily forgot what he was doing. He tried to wipe the thought of the beautiful blonde Samantha from his mind and he continued looking round the ball room. Although as he did he continued to look back and check she was alright, he couldn't help it and he couldn't stop himself, if anything ever happened to her he'd have no idea how to cope without her in his life. He hadn't told her as lately how much she meant to him, he thought it would be too hard to have a conversation like that without old feelings rising to the top again.

The time passed quickly for some, slowly for others. Mr. Heifer was becoming more and more nervous by the minute, although he had tried to keep a brave face when talking to some of the guests such as Samuel L. Jackson and Julia Roberts, encouraging them to drink and have a good time.

Vivian walked up to Danny who was sitting at the bar eyeing up the guests.

"How you going?" She asked taking a sip from a glass of water.

"Not very well, I've got a feeling it's going to be a long night" he replied turning to look at his masked colleague.

"Don't worry, only another hour and ten minutes and the pick up should happen, then we can all go home"

"Oh, is that it?" he replied sarcastically, he wished it would be midnight already. He hadn't seen anyone suspicious and now he was as bored as hell. She patted his back and wandered back off into the crowd.

Danny sighed and ordered another drink.

Caitlin walked up the stairs and up to the balcony which looked over the ballroom, the balcony stretched all the way around the room. She was looking to get a better view of where the drop off and pick up would be made. She held onto the banister and slowly walked around picking the perfect position. She looked at the main room clock which read 10:56pm. She found her place, it gave her the best view possible. She leant against the banister and watched everyone dance, laugh, flirt, drink. She could even see Danny at the bar, Jack standing by the bottom of the stairs and Samantha talking to a few other masked guests.

Martin yawned and rubbed his face to try and wake him up. As he looked up he saw a masked woman standing on the balcony looking down at the guests, alone. Martin recognised the dress from earlier when she walked in. He double checked his gun was still in place and made his way up the stairs and round to where the lonely agent was standing. She was so busy watching everyone she never noticed another person on the balcony approaching her.

He stood next to her and rested his arms on the balcony and looked over the Masquerade ball. She noticed two arms rest next to hers, she looked round and smiled gently to herself. It was one of the security guards, also a fellow team mate.

Martin didn't return her look, he continued to look out into the party before he spoke.

"Now what's a pretty girl like you doing up here alone when the party's down there?" he asked, he now turned to face the smiling Kate and raised his eyebrows.

She took a moment to reply "It's not really my thing"

"Ah, see now I thought you would of loved something like this, the big dresses, the masks the ballroom"

"Well then I guess you don't know me as well as you think you do, except I do like the dancing" she said teasingly.

"Obviously not"

"So what about you, what's a security guard doing up on the balcony? Shouldn't he be down on the main floor protecting all the glamorous stars?" she asked curiously.

"He's trying to get a better look at the prettiest girl at the ball"

She looked at him for a moment "Let me guess" she turned back out to the party "That would be either the badly masked Jessica Simpson or the brunette in the little black dress hitting on Danny" she looked back at him wondering if she was correct.

He laughed to himself quietly, he couldn't believe she didn't get the compliment "yeh, pretty much" he didn't bother explaining to her, he wanted to avoid the embarrassment.

"So what happened to that guy you were dancing with?" he asked casually.

"He got dragged away by another woman for a dance, why you jealous?" she replied looking back into the crowd then back at him, raisng her eyebrows waiting for a reply, she already knew the answer. She was sure he had no interest in her.

He smiled at the question, the honest answer would be yes he was a little jealous, but he was sure that she wasn't interested in him and the question was a joking one "No, but who was he?"

"I don't know, but he was pretty damn charming" she replied, she looked up and smiled to him.

"So you gonna stay up here for the rest of the night?" he asked

She looked at the main room clock which read 10:59pm. "Only for the next hour"

He frowned "Why"

"Because" she pointed down to where the pick up will be made "This gives me the best view of the drop off and pick up of the money, here I will be able to see when Mr. Heifer drops off the money and hopefully who picks it up and where they're heading."

Martin nodded "Fair enough, you seriously gonna stay here for the whole hour?"

She nodded "Yeh, why you don't think I should?"

"No I just don't think you can make it that long without talking to anyone" he teased.

She pulled a sarcastic face "Alright, I think now you should go" she said gently turning him the opposite direction.

"Go? Why?"

"Because this is my view point, and I think it'll look a little weird if you spend the next hour up here alone with one of the guests"

"That's a fairly good point" Martin agreed "Alright I'll go, but I hope you're aware you're the only conversation I've had all night and you're sending me back down stairs on my own" he tried to make her feel sorry for her.

She pretended to look upset "Awww Martin, I feel so sorry for you" she teased. Over the past five weeks they had grown pretty close friends and enjoyed teasing each other whenever possible.

Once realising it wasn't working he turned and headed back for the stairs, he glanced at her once more then continued his way down to the ground floor.

Danny sat at the bar chatting to the hot brunette that had approached him a while ago.

"So where you going after you leave the party tonight?" she asked

"I don't know, I'll probably head home, get out of this as fast as I can" he pulled at his costume.

She laughed "Well if you want any help with that I'm free after this" she licked her lips.

"Actually I already got some one to help me with that thanks"

"Oh well, you can't blame a girl for trying can you"

He went to reply but he heard Jack's voice in his ear.

"Alright everyone, you listening?" Jack said into his mic

Danny looked at the clock it read 11:53pm, god since the woman had approached him the last hour had gone pretty quick. He smiled at her "Look sorry about this but I gotta go"

She looked confused "But it's not even midnight"

"I know and I'm sorry but there's something I got to do" he didn't even wait for a reply.

He walked off and spoke into the cuff of his jacket "Jack I hear you"

Everyone else replied as well and Jack began giving instructions "Alright it's 11:54pm, Kevin is about to walk over and drop the money off in the location, so we don't have much time until the pick up is made. So Samantha I want you sat at the bar pretty close to the corner but not too close we don't' want him being suspicious. Vivian stand on the stairs, stay near the bottom but higher enough so you can see what's going on. Kate you're on the balcony, keep a close eye on the kidnapper, if we loose sight you're our eyes. Martin will be up by the main entrance, just encase. Danny I want you down by the corner but not where the money will be laid, stay about 5 foot away from the money, sit on the floor and pretend to be asleep, hopefully he'll just assume you've had too much to drink. You all got it?" he asked

He got a couple of 'yeses' from each of his agents and made his way to his own location. Everyone stood in their designated locations and waited for midnight to come. Each one stood anxious to get this done with and go home, it had been an extremely long day, some of them had been at work since six this morning and two of them were still on the go from being called in at nine the previous night. They waited less then a minute before they saw Kevin Heifer walk over to the corner and casually drop off a bag, he didn't look around for anyone that might seem suspicious, he just dropped the bag and walked away as instructed by Jack.

The time ticked past, second by second, minutes by minutes. The clock on the wall read midnight and the twelve chimes began.

Chime one, chime two, chime three, chime four. Still nothing happened. Chime five, chime six, chime seven. A man approached the bag, he casually bent down and picked up the bag, then turned for the exit.

Danny opened his eyes and saw a man begin to walk away with the bag, he stood up ready to follow, Sam did the same. But they got blocked by a big load of people.

"I lost sight of him" said Danny quickly alerting his team mates.

"Same with me" Sam added.

"Kate, you see him?" Vivian asked

Kate watched the same man move towards the centre stairs where Vivian was waiting "He on his way towards the stairs, Viv he'll be right in front of you in…" she waited for a second till the perfect moment when the lights went out. The music stopped. The room was pitch black. Then they flickered back on for a moment before turning off again.

"What the hell is going on?" Danny said to himself trying to push his way through the crowd.

"Any one got sight on this guy?" Jack said.

Each agent heard the question but none had a reply. The lights flickered on again for a few seconds. This gave Kate just enough time from up top to see the same man with the bag just approaching Martin at the main doors.

"I see him, he going towards the main entrance" Kate said making her way across the balcony.

"Alright, Martin he's approaching you, get him, everyone else follow" Jack replied.

Danny and Samantha continued to try and push their way through the obstacle crowd and Vivian began up the stairs, with Jack a few steps behind. The lights flickered on and off again letting Martin see the direction in which the man was heading, into the foyer.

Kate changed her fast pace of a walk into a run. Running in high heels, a painful and stupid idea she thought to herself, Vivian and Sam were both thinking the same thing, and it wasn't like they were wearing their comfortable high heeled boots. Kate made it down the higher set of stairs making it to the foyer, she just about saw Martin running out of the side entrance, so she followed, in her mask and dress, this wasn't exactly what she had signed up for.

Seconds later Jack and Vivian were both out in the foyer, they saw nothing odd so they ran out onto the street seeing a woman in a white dress running down the street and two more men further down running away from the building. Vivian went to run after them when Jack grabbed her arm stopping them, he whistled for a cab. One pulled over, Jack opened the driver's seat and pulled him out.

"FBI, we're going to need to borrow your car" The man didn't have time to reply, jack was already in his car with Vivian in the passenger's seat.

"I like your way of thinking" Vivian said scanning the side walk for their fellow agents.

"Well we're getting old, why not let the younger ones run" he replied

"Excuse me, we're not that old. Well I'm not" A moment of silence and Vivian spotted them. "There" she pointed.

Jack spotted Kate running, then further on Martin. He sped up and saw the man with the bag. Jack just over took him then skidded and turned stopping in front of him, blocking his path.

Jack had pulled in so fast and so close the man didn't have time to slow down or change direction, he just slammed into the side of the cab and fell to the floor. Martin being right behind him just managed to stop and pulled out him gun pointing it in the man's direction.

"Don't even think about moving" Martin said moving in on him.

Jack and Vivian quickly moved out from the cab and besides Martin, Vivian pulled the bag with millions in away.

"Stand up" Jack ordered

The man ignored the instruction and sat their shaking his head with disappointment in his failure.

Jack closed his eyes, bent down and grabbed the man by the front of his jacket. "Listen I'm not in the mood, I have been on the job for well over 27 seven hours putting scum like you behind bars and you ignoring me isn't helping my temper. And I can promise you, you don't want to get on the wrong side of me or else I can personally make the next few days of your life hell" Jack slammed him against the cab.

Kate came running up behind seconds late, completely out of breath.

Vivian turned away from Martin, Jack and the man to face her.

Her cheeks were rosy red compared to the whiteness of her dress, the mask had been removed and was now clutched in her left hand, she breathed heavily trying to pace it back to normal.

"You alright?" Vivian asked.

Kate rested her right hand on her hip and wiped her forehead with the other. "You're telling me I've just ran what eight or nine blocks in heels and I could of stole a cab like you?"

Vivian smiled "Technically we never stole it, we just borrowed it without actual consent."

Vivian felt for her team mate, Kate, Jack and Danny had been the three working for well over the 27 hours, where as herself Samantha and Martin had only been going since yesterday morning.

"Viv, Jack wants you to call Danny and Sam, get them to bring the truck round, we're taking him back now" Martin said joining the two women.

"Alright" Vivian replied taking out her cell phone, their wires had gone down minutes ago as they were being powered from the hotel. She walked a couple of yards away to find a quieter spot to hear them on the other end better.

"You alright?" Martin asked Kate, noticing she looked out of breath.

Kate met Martin's eyes, they looked so alive, darting up and down her, he obviously wasn't feeling tired, she envied him at this moment for that. She would actually go to sleep right now if only she had the chance. "I wanna go home" she said quietly turning away and walking down the street.

He laughed to himself, if he was honest she did look absolutely knackered, her skin was dark around the eyes, her hair had been messed up from the running and breathing in and out heavily didn't help her appearance. He turned back to see Jack still holding the guy up by his jacket.

"Need any help Jack" Martin asked

"No, no. I think we're starting to get a little understanding between us. Isn't that right?" Jack turned to face the man against the cab.

The man reluctantly nodded.

Danny and Sam pulled up in the black FBI truck next to the bright yellow cab. Jack cuffed the man and loaded him into the back of the truck and took his seat next to him. The other three took the other truck back to the office. Before he left to join the other Martin returned the Cab man taxi back to him with thanks from the FBI.

It was half two in the morning. Jack and Danny had been in the interrogation room with the man. The only thing Danny and jack had got out of him was a name and the request for a lawyer.

Vivian had made the call to Steven Harrison's Lawyer who said he would be able to come down to the office later on that morning, around nine thirty.

Having asked for a Lawyer it meant that Danny and Jack could no longer question him without his lawyer present, meaning they were going to have to wait till the next morning before they could continue their investigation. Jack and Danny left the interrogation room and joint the rest of their team in the bullpen. Everyone was still dressed in their costume, whether it be a security guard outfit or an actual masquerade outfit.

"Alright, we're not going to get anything else from him until his lawyer gets here so you can all go home, get some sleep and rest and make sure you're back tomorrow after noon to continue. Martin and I will be here earlier to continue with the interrogation and to deal with this son of a bitch's lawyer." Jack looked at his team, they all looked like they needed a good long twelve hours sleep.

Vivian was first to get from her chair, "Well it's still going to be an early start for me because I have to take Reggie to a school soccer match in the morning and my loving husband just happens to be in work early tomorrow so it means I get the pleasure of standing out in the cold for an hour at eight in the morning"

Samantha smiled at Vivian "Well have fun with that"

The others left with only Danny and Jack behind "You not going home?" Danny asked his boss.

Jack shook his head "Nah, I have some work to do here, and it's only seven hours till his lawyer arrives so there's no point for me. What about you?"

"Trying to delay it as much as possible" Danny replied

"How come, your girlfriend got you on a tight leash already?"

"No, we were meant to go out on some 2 month anniversary meal thing tonight and I forgot to call and cancel. So I've got a feeling she's going to be waiting at mine tonight for an explanation and I don't really think 'I forgot' will be good enough" Danny said.

Jack patted his back "Just think the sooner you get there the sooner it will be over with"

"I guess"

"Well it could be worse, could be me in your position right now" Jack made a small smile on his tired face.

"If only" Danny returned a weak smile and left the building. Jack sat at his desk and looked over the rest of the floor. Most lights were out and there was only a couple of other agents left working. Obviously a very quiet night for everyone else because they were all at home in bed or a very busy night and they were all out on a case. Either way he liked the peace and quiet, just what he needed to concentrate on work.


	13. Masquerade case part 3

**Author's note:** Hope you enjoy this chapter! I tried to add some of Danny's arguement with his girlfriend but i wasn't really sure what to put into it so i tried my best for that section! Please review :)

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Danny turned his key and opened his door to see his girlfriend sitting on the sofa facing the door, she was still awake, wide awake and she looked pissed off, seriously pissed off. As he turned to shut the door he lent his head on the door.

"I knew I shouldn't have given her a key already" he said quietly to himself.

He chucked his keys on the side along with his jacket. He completely ignored her and headed straight into his bedroom, he couldn't listen to her moan whilst still wearing his stupid costume.

She sat on the sofa and watched him avoid her, she bit her lip and resisted from shouting at him already. She wondered whether to wait for him to come back out or go in after him, she wanted an explanation and she wanted one now!

She didn't need to make a decision though because within seconds he was back from his room wearing black baggy sweatpants.

"I thought you would of gone home by now" He said plainly as he opened the fridge pulling out a bottle of water, he had planned coming home and going straight to sleep, but from the look he was getting from her he didn't think that was going to happen any time soon.

"Well I felt I was owed an explanation you know. I wanted to know why I was left waiting half the night on my own in a restaurant when I was meant to be enjoying a two month anniversary meal with my boyfriend." She sounded upset.

"I'm sorry alright, I couldn't make it" he was way too tired to even try and argue with her, but apparently she didn't feel the same right now.

Her make-up was messed up, black streaks down her face, he guessed she had been crying some time that night, he felt bad, although her being so emotional could have something to do with the two empty bottles of wine on his kitchen counter.

"Sorry? Sorry? Do you have any idea how embarrassing that was? I waited for two hours in that restaurant, and then one of the waiters told me I had to leave because the next couple had booked our table."

"I said I'm sorry alright, what more do you want me to say?" his voice rose in volume with hers.

"I want you to explain why you couldn't make it, I want to know if you even wanted to make it" a tear ran down her face.

"I couldn't make it because I had to work, and you know I wanted to come. I've been looking forward to seeing you last night all week"

"But it was your night off last night Danny"

"Yeh but I was on call. I can't have time off when I want it like you, I don't do the normal 9 till 5 hours. I'm a fucking FBI agent alright, do you have any idea what that means? That means I'm on call 24 hours a day, 7 fucking days a week, and if I get called I have to drop what ever I'm doing and head to work. Some times it not always convenient alright, I've been called away when I'm on a date, or when I'm in the middle of waiting for a take-away, hell I've even been called out in the middle of sex before, but that's the effect my job has and I accepted that when I signed on"

"So you don't have phones at work, you didn't have 30 seconds just to quickly call and say 'Sorry but I got called to work, I'll make it up to you later' ?"

"It wasn't the first thing on my mind, trying to find a nineteen year old girl was. And I'm sorry if you feel second best but I can't help that, it's just the way it is"

"I know and I understand that…" she started but was interrupted.

"Do you? Because none of the other girls I've dated have been able to cope with being second, let alone understand it"

"But I'm not the other girls you've dated, I'm me"

That wasn't the end of the argument that was only the start. Danny still had another forty minutes of constant arguing only it wasn't just about him missing dinner, the subject changed continuously between the both of them.

"Jack? Jack?" Martin said standing in front of Jack's desk.

Jack's head was rested on his desk, tilted to one side. His eyes fluttered open a couple of times before they actually managed to stay open. He took a second to realise where he was. He lifted his head from the desk, knocked a piece of paper stuck to his mouth and looked up to see Martin standing there staring at him.

"Having a nice sleep?" Martin said jokingly.

"Time?" Jack croaked out, he wasn't the happiest person in the morning unlike some of his team members.

"Nine. You thinking of getting changed or do you like being the security guard?"

Jack groaned and looked down and his clothes, he was still wearing the black top reading 'security' and combats, and stood up from his table. He rubbed his forehead and walked round to the front of his desk. He picked up a set of keys.

"I'm going for a shower and to get changed. I'll be back in ten minutes, if he's early try not to start without me."

"I'll try my hardest to resist a lovely conversation with some stuck up lawyer about some scum bag we're holding " Martin replied

Jack stopped and frowned at Martin.

Martin got the hint "Too early for jokes?"

Jack just nodded then walked out of his office and down the hall to this floor's locker room. He used one of the keys to open his locker. He pulled out a set of fresh clothes and some shower stuff, then shut the door when a photo fell to the floor. He bent down and picked up the photo. It was one of Samantha, taken from over a year ago. She was wearing one of his shirts with a smile on her face. She was smiling at the man taking the photo. He smiled and popped it back into his locker. Then he made his way to the bottom of the locker room where there was several showers in a line, each having it's own little cubicle and door. He entered the first one he came along and turned the hot water on and the let the hot water cover every inch of his body, quickly waking him up.

Vivian stood out in the freezing cold, wrapped up warmly in a couple of shirts and a big thick coat with a hat, gloves and a scarf. She held a hot cup of coffee in her hands and she watched the end of Reggie's soccer match. Her legs were shaking. This wasn't exactly how she wanted to spend her lye in, ideally she would be able to get her extra couple of hours sleep to make up for the ones lost last night, but she didn't mind, she enjoyed watching her one and only son play the game he loved. Minutes later the whistle went and the game was finished. The two teams separated and had a quick discussion before they dispersed into lots of little boys looking for their families.

Reggie found his way to Vivian and smiled.

"Hey mom, we won, did you see it" he asked with a wide grin on his face.

"Yes sweetie I saw it, well done on scoring a goal by the way or do you call it a score? Anyway I'm very proud of you" she wrapped an arm around him as they started to walk away. He shook away from it "Mom! Not here, my friends can see us"

Vivian laughed to herself and walked along side of her son.

"Are we going to paint my bedroom today, you promised we'd make a start" Reggie asked climbing into the passenger seat of the car.

"I'm sorry Reg but I have to go back to work this afternoon."

"But mom, you said…"

She interrupted "I know Reggie and I'm sorry but I have to go into work and do something, you know what my work can be like. Look I'm going to drop you off at your friends, I already called his mom and she said it's fine. Then I'll pick you up later today and we'll make a start on it tonight, yeh?"

"Fine" he said, then looked out of the window, he was disappointed, he had been waiting for months to get his room changed. And he knew there was a large chance that it wouldn't get started tonight.

Danny rolled over in bed to see a beautiful brunette sleeping silently by his side. Last night had gone exactly how he had predicted. After arguing till about half four Danny then received the silent treatment for another half hour before they made up and had amazing sex. He looked over at his alarm clock which read eleven twenty. He had only had a couple hours sleep, he could do with a few more but duty called and he needed to make it back into the office sometime today. He climbed out of bed and kissed the brunette gently on the forehead before going into the bathroom and having a shower. About twenty minutes later Danny came out of the shower wearing a towel around his waist to find the brunette missing from his bed. He walked through the hallway and found her in the kitchen at the oven wearing only her underwear and one of his oversized sweaters.

"Hey gorgeous" He said walking up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Morning" she replied, she turned from the oven and wrapped her arms around his neck, he was still warm from the shower and steam was rising from his body. He leant down and kissed her passionately, he ran his right hand through her hair whilst the other one slid up her back. She pulled away after a few seconds. "Now be a good boy and go and get dressed ready for work, I'm going to make you a big nice breakfast ready for your hard days work." She smiled and kissed him again.

"Mmm, you know the way to a man's heart, well mine anyway" he returned the kiss.

"I love you" she said looking into his eyes.

"I love you too" It was the first time he had said it to her. He never normally said this too many girls, but this one was different, she seemed special to him, like when he held her he never wanted to let her go. She smiled brightly when she heard those four words. He turned and headed back into the bedroom to get dressed. She turned back to continue cooking his breakfast and couldn't stop smiling to herself, she was so in love!

Kate opened her eyes to the sound of the front door opening and something heavy being dragged across the wooden floor. Her eyes hurt from the ray of the light shining through the window, she still hadn't quite managed to put up the blinds or curtains yet. She cursed to herself for not doing so, every morning she woke up and it was brightly shining into her room. She rubbed her eyes and rolled off of her mattress. Then padded into the living room come Kitchen.

"Morning" Michelle said pulling her suitcase across the floor.

"Morning" Caitlin replied with a groggy voice.

Michelle looked around the flat, there was still absolutely loads of boxes everywhere. It was Kate's job to get everything out, put it together and stuff like that. Michelle agreed that if she did the cleaning and cooking Kate would do the fixing and putting together. Michelle mainly agreed to this because she loved cooking, cleaning, washing. In Kate's words she was a mom and wife without the husband and kids. The only things Kate had managed to unpack and fix together was the things they needed like the cutlery, pans, and the things Michelle moaned about having done like Michelle's bed and mattress, dinning table and two of the four chairs they had to go with it. Kate was progressing but only very slowly, work was taking up a lot of her time and most nights she had off she spent out at a little club down town which she loved going to. Michelle had been a couple of times with her but it wasn't really her thing, it was mainly dancers that went and Michelle wasn't much of a dancer unlike her roommate.

"So, you managed to put anything else together whilst I've been gone?" Michelle asked looking around the place for signs of anything new.

"I thought about fixing the TV to the wall" Kate said filling a glass with orange juice.

"And?"

"I didn't know where we wanted it"

"I thought we were going to put it on that wall there then bring the sofa across and opposite it, if ever you get the sofa out of the wrapper" Michelle said sarcastically.

"Well then if you want the sofa out why don't you get it out the wrapper yourself?" Kate was tired and talking about this wasn't making her mood any better.

"Because that wasn't part of the deal Kate and you know that lately I've been clocking a hell of a lot of over time so I'm hardly ever here, and when ever I am here I'm holding up my end of the deal by cleaning this place, cooking meals to last you for the rest of the week."

"Look, I'm tired and I don't want to argue about it now alright"

"No, you never wanna talk about anything now, you're always gone when I'm here so we never get chance to talk about it. Well guess what we're both here now so I think we need to discuss some things."

"I said not now okay" Kate's voice rose a little and so did Michelle's.

"Screw what you want at the moment alright, we can't keep putting things off like this. If you don't have time to put this stuff together why don't we just pay someone to do it for us?"

"Because we can't fucking afford to pay some one else to do this for us alright, do you have any idea how much money was spent on all this crap? Okay with the price of this apartment and paying off what was brought we can't afford some one else, so why don't you just drop it and let me finish it when I have the time"

"But that's the point you never have the time. I don't want to live in a shit hole, and I hate every time I come back from work to see that the apartment is exactly how I left it, a complete mess"

"Then don't" Kate snapped

"Don't what?" Michelle replied, her voice was almost at shouting volume.

"Don't live here, if you don't like it then why don't you piss off some where else and find some one else to annoy after a working almost thirty hours straight" With that Kate slammed her glass in the sink and stormed off into her room.

Michelle also being pissed off dragged her suitcase to her room and slammed her door. It didn't surprise either one of them that they had argued, both had been under a lot of stress lately and they were about due for another one. They normally had one every couple of weeks, then they wouldn't talk much for a couple of days then they'd apologise and get back to normal. Then they'd do it all over again over something stupid. It was how their friendship worked, they were best friends, ever since they were really young but sometimes they just had to let the other one have it. This had been one of their smaller arguments.

Kate sat on her bed and sighed, rubbing her face. The clock said noon. She should probably head into work now anyway. She got dressed, picked up the equipment she needed and headed for work, not in the best of moods.

Samantha was the last into work, she looked around and only Kate was sitting at her desk.

"Good afternoon" Samantha said happily sitting down at her desk.

Kate didn't bother looking up from her work. "Hey", she didn't seem happy.

"Where is everyone else?"

"If you mean Vivian and Danny, they're watching the interrogation"

Sam looked at her watch which said quarter past one. "That's still going?"

Kate just nodded.

"I think I'll go and join them, you coming?" Sam said about to leave the bull pen.

Kate shook her head "Nah, I'm gonna finish this"

"Alright then" Sam said as she walked off.

Minutes later Cindy approached the bullpen. "Martin here?" she asked looking at his desk. Ever since the moment in the bathroom Cindy had been really funny around Kate, ignoring her, sarcastic comments, It pissed Kate off at first but now she just looked past it and occasionally sent her sarcastic comments back.

"Yeh, he's sitting right at his desk" Kate replied sarcastically looking up at Cindy.

"Funny" Cindy replied scornfully.

"Look Cindy what is your problem with me?" Kate asked being serious now.

"What makes you think I have a problem with you?"

"Where should I start?"

She just raised her eyebrows and gave Kate an evil glance

Kate laughed to her self "You really don't like me do you?"

Now it was Cindy laughing "It took you a while to figure that out huh? I thought it was the blondes who were meant to be dumb. You give brunettes a bad name"

"I used to think you were the nice quite girl, but really underneath that you're just bitch aren't you"

"Only to you" she smiled innocently

"I was nothing but nice to you when I first came here, I don't understand it"

"Let's just say you're getting in the way of something I want"

"And what's that? A life?" Kate asked

"Come on, you're and FBI agent why don't you figure it out?" she turned to walk away.

"You're truly pathetic you know that?" Kate said as she went to leave.

"At least I have brains, and not just looks"

Kate's mood was already bad when she turned up to work this morning but Cindy did nothing but make it worse. "Hey Cindy, I like that skirt" normally she wouldn't of sunk that low but Cindy deserved a sarcastic comment like that. If she thought about it she was actually helping Cindy out, the bright orange flowery skirt she was wearing was really ugly looking.

Cindy laughed "At least I can pull a skirt off" She walked away.

Kate bit her lip and clenched her fist. I'll show you she thought to herself.

"Would you just shut up for a minute" Jack slammed his hands on the table "You are not helping your client in any way when you tell him not to answer when he's asked a question. You are just prolonging our investigation. Do you seriously think that you will be able to protect him if this goes to court. You would be up against one of the most well paid actor's, and I am telling you now he could afford the best lawyers in the world and ten of them. Do you really think you and your client are going to stand a chance in a court with them firing questions at him?"

This guy's lawyer was seriously getting on Jack's nerves.

Vivian, Danny and Samantha stood watching the interrogation from the hall, through the window which looked like a mirror on the other side.

"Jack's really letting him have it huh?" Danny said watching the Lawyer's facial expression.

"Let's just hope it works" Vivian added.

"How much longer do you think it will take?" Sam asked the other agents.

"You mean if Martin or Jack hasn't shoved one of those into a wall by then, I'd give it another hour" Danny said taking a mouthful of coffee from the coffee mug in his hand.

"I'd give it less then half an hour" Vivian said

"Care to make that a bet?" Danny asked curiously

"twenty bucks?" Vivian asked

"Deal" They both shook hands.

"Prepare to buy me lunch Mrs. Johnson" Danny said.

Samantha and Vivian both laughed.

Because they had been talking they hadn't been listening to what was going on inside the room. Martin and Jack both stood from their chairs and walked out of the room joining the other agents outside.

"We got a location" Martin said.

"About bloody time as well" Jack added.

Vivian smiled and looked at Danny, she held out her hand. He sighed and pulled a twenty dollar bill form his pocket and put it in Viv's hand.

"Nice doing business with you" she folded the bill neatly and slipped it in her suit jacket pocket.

"She's being held in an old office building in the Bronx, so suit up. We don't know if he has any partner's but something this big I would guess there is some one else other then him. Sam, Martin and Kate I want you to." He noticed she wasn't there "Where is Kate?"

"She's at her desk" Sam informed

"Oh, well anyway I want you Martin and Kate to take the back entrance. According to him there's two ways in, the main entrance and one round the back, he wasn't sure where he left her, or so he say's. I think he's just trying to be more difficult. Viv, Danny and I will take the main entrance. Be careful, we still don't know what's inside."

Jack studied the faces of all his team mates, even without saying a word he knew they were agreeing and understood exactly what he was saying. They all walked to the bull pen. Each one pulled out their FBI jackets.

"You coming?" Martin asked Kate

"I got nothing better to do?" she said.

He raised his eyebrow's and she bent down and pulled her navy jacket out, matching every one else.

Then she walked by his said with Sam making their way across the floor.

Cindy approached tapping Martin's arm "Hey, you got a minute?" she asked politely.

Kate rolled her eyes, which Sam noticed.

Martin sighed, he had a feeling he knew what this was about "Not right now, I gotta go"

"Oh, okay. I'll catch you later?"

"Erm… sure" he replied

She watched him walk away as she listened to the conversation.

"You don't look happy" Martin said to Kate.

"Just having a bad day" she replied

"Fancy making it better by going out for a drink tonight?" he asked

She shrugged, "Why not"

They were too far gone now, and Cindy could no longer hear the conversation. She now envied Kate, she had the chance to do tonight what Cindy had wanted to do for so long, go out on a date with Martin, only to Kate and Martin it wouldn't be a date, just friends grabbing a drink.

"What about you Sam, you wanna come tonight?" Kate asked pushing the button in the elevator.

"I would but I'm meeting some one tonight" Sam replied

"Who?"

"Keller"

"Keller? As in really cute Detective Keller?" Kate asked

"The one and only" Sam smiled, inside she would prefer it to be the one and only Special Agent Malone she was meeting tonight, but she knew if they happened again Samantha wouldn't be able to cope with breaking apart again.

They arrived at the office building. It was just outside the main part of the Bronx and sat on it's own about 400 metres away from any buildings with a huge parking area. Jack, Viv and Danny climbed out the truck and approached the front door. Jack looked at the sign on the outside wall which informed him on the number of floors and what was on each one.

"Alright seven floors, Danny call Sam. Tell her and the other two to start at the top, we'll start with the basement and work our way up"

They waited a minute whilst Danny made the call then entered the building. It was deserted, hadn't been used for over six months. There was papers on the floor, the reception computers had been smashed, the clean white walls were no longer clean but covered in burn marks, spray paint probably caused by teenagers, random waste bins scattered everywhere along with a few cardboard boxes . Jack made his way to the stairway and continued to the next floor down, the basement. As they went down the stairs it got darker and darker. Vivian tried flicking on the light switch, nothing happened.

"No one's been here for a while, which means no one's paid the electric bill" Danny said like it was obvious.

"Oh yeh" Vivian realised that as soon as he said it, she should have thought about that first.

They each brought out their torch and switched it on. They lit up parts of the basement and saw old leaking pipes, which gave the repeating sound of drip, drip, drip, drip. Danny heard a little scratchy noise and something run over his feet. He froze in his place and Jack shone his light down showing a rat running from them.

"I can see why no one wants to work here" Danny said quietly.

The sight of the rat sent a shiver down Vivian's back

They made their way through the basement but found nothing but alive rats, dead rotting rats being eaten by the live ones and boxes of old paper work from previous companies that had been here.

"Alright time to move up to the ground floor, there's nothing down here" Jack said following Vivian back up to the stairs they had used to get down here.

Sam, Kate and Martin came to the first set of stairs they found and made their way to the top floor. The three split each checking every office, toilet cubicle, broom closet, everything.

Martin opened a broom closet and Kate checked inside with a torch.

"You know what colleges do in broom closets?" he smiled and looked at her.

She tilted her head and looked at him with a small smile on her face, she knew what he was saying but she decided to tease instead "Yeh I've heard about that. Apparently if the man touches the woman she kills him. Right?" She tapped her gun against one of his biceps and looked deeply into his eyes.

His smiled dropped from his face "Not quite"

"Nice try" she said as she walked back out.

"Come on, you know I was joking right"

"Maybe, besides I don't think love sick Cindy would appreciate you saying those comments to other women" she smiled at him then turned to walk after Samantha who was ready to check another office, she frowned when he heard her say that about Cindy, lovesick?

Nothing on the top floor, so down they went to floor six.

Viv, Jack and Danny checked the basement, ground floor, the 1st and they were now checking the 2nd.

"You reckon the others have had better luck yet?" Danny asked Jack

"Well if they have I reckon we would of heard from them by now" Jack replied as he opened another office door.

"You wanna tell me why you're not as happy as what you normally are?" Martin asked Kate as they opened another office door on the 4th floor.

"I had an argument with my room mate this morning, and I said some stupid and mean things that I shouldn't have. That's all" Kate replied

"I guess you're going to go home and apologise then?"

"Sure, if she apologises first, I mean she started it"

Martin watched her walk off with a frown on his face, he couldn't believe she just said that.

She looked back at him "Don't frown, you'll get lines"

She cocked a smile to one side then turned away again to continue down the hall.

Sam turned the handle of one of the doors and it didn't open. She tried once more and again it didn't open. She clicked her hands to get the attention of her fellow team mates who turned to her attention. They walked up to her and she whispered.

"It doesn't open, and I think I heard some thing move inside."

"We could knock it down" Kate said slipping her gun back into her holster.

"They'd hear us coming, we don't know how many people are in there or if they're armed" Martin said

"So how are we going to see what's going on, or get in there?" Kate asked

Martin rubbed his neck and looked up and down the corridor, then he spotted some thing "We're not, you two are"

"What?" Kate asked confused

He pointed to a vent shaft at the top of the wall a further down the corridor. "In every office there's a grate which leads to that right?"

"Right" Sam agreed.

"So if you two climb through it you'll be able to see what's going on through the grate. Then you can come back and we'll know how to go about it" Martin finished.

Samantha thought about it for a moment then realised it would be the best idea "Alright, you gonna help us up?" She asked him

"Of course" he smiled "I'll help you through then let Jack know"

He helped Sam up and through the vent then he turned to Kate.

"Why do two people need to go through?" she asked

"Because two of you would be safer then just the one" he explained

"Yeh but then you'll be on your own, so that wouldn't be safe" she rested her hands on her hips making her point clear.

"Don't worry about me, the others will be here in a couple of minutes"

She tilted her head to one side "What makes you think I'm worried about you?"

"Stop trying to delay alright, you're going up there" he held his arms out waiting for her to go over and be lifted.

She just sighed and walked up to him. "Alright, lets get this over and done with"

He picked her up and pushed her up higher, she grabbed the edge of the opening and pulled herself in after Samantha who had already started crawling. She took a turn left, crawled a couple of metres, took a right, another left then came to a stop.

Sam was just above the grate so she moved to her left so Kate could squeeze up her right side so she could get a look too, and I mean squeeze. They peered into the office which was locked and saw a young blonde in a dress tied to a chair in the centre of the room. Then they looked around the room. There was four men in total, all armed.

"I was hoping for just one guy guarding her" Kate whispered

"Dito" Sam replied

Jack, Danny and Vivian ran down the hallway to where Martin was standing under a vent shaft.

"Where's Samantha and Kate?" Jack asked scanning the rest of the hallway.

Martin just looked up to where the vent hole was.

"And they're in there because?" Vivian asked

"Each office has a grid panel leading to this, if they find that panel they can see what's inside" Martin said.

"That the office?" Danny asked nodding to the one on his right

"We think so" Martin replied

"How long they been up there?" Jack asked examining the hole above him.

"No more then a few minutes, they're gonna see if they can see inside then come back."

The four waited in the hallway for the two female agents to return.

"Okay let's go back, we've got what we need" Kate said trying to turn around.

Samantha tried to turn at the same time but she was lodged between Kate and the side of the shaft, Kate the same.

"Try going forwards and I'll go back" Sam instructed quietly.

Kate tried to pull herself forwards whilst Sam went the opposite way.

"Harder" Sam said.

Kate pulled one more time with all her strength and succeeded, she fell forwards away from Sam and landed hard on the metal grid, there was a loud bang and the grid fell from beneath her, along with a few more panels under her body. She tried to grab for something to hold on to but there was nothing, her legs flung in front of her and she fell to the office floor beneath her, back hitting the ground hard.

Samantha watched Kate fall as the panels broke away from the rest of the shaft.

Kate hit the ground with a loud thud, Sam tried quickly to back away but then the panel under her fell, she grabbed for the wall but the smooth metal just let her hands slip off it.

She fell head first through the hole and smacked onto the ground next to Caitlin.

Sam quickly sat up, she had landed on her side making it less painful, and noticed four large men standing around the two of them, all guns pointed towards them.

"Owww" Kate said rubbing her back, she hadn't looked up yet.

Samantha nudged her and she looked up noticing what Sam was looking at.

"Oh oo" Kate so quietly that only Samantha heard.

"What the hell are you doing?" One of the bigger men growled

"Hi, we just thought we'd drop in. Get it, drop… in…?" Kate said trying to make the difficult situation easier.

Two of the men pulled the back of their handguns setting the firing pin in place, all they would need to do now is pull the trigger.

"Hmm, guess not" Kate said quietly, then the man nearest walked over to her and brought the back of his hand across her face, making a loud smacking sound. The force of it sent Kate's whole body back to the ground. Then she leaned back up facing the man that had hit her.

Then he faced Samantha "Your friend was not clever by making such remarks. Now I am going to give you ten seconds to give me a reason as to why I shouldn't blow her brains from her head" He held the gun up in Kate's direction and looked back to Samantha for a reason.

He began counting "10… 9…8…"


	14. You're drooling

**Author's note: **Bit of a big chapter but i got a bit carried away, not the best i know but it will get better i promise! Hope you like the Danny/ Mona scene never written one like that before, Please review, all kinds of reveiws are much appreciated.

* * *

"What the hell was that?" Jack said as he began running down the hall towards the office Sam and Kate were meant to be watching.

The others followed right behind him, they paused outside of the office and held their heads close to the door listening to what was going on inside, they could hear voices.

"I can't hear what they're saying" Danny said pressing his ear closer against the door.

"Sssshhh" Vivian said just able to make out the words being said.

"You have ten seconds to give me a reason as to why I shouldn't blow her brains from her head" Said a man's voice.

Vivian looked up towards Jack who closed his eyes trying to think what to do.

Kate looked over to Samantha who was trying to think of a way to get them out of the mess they were in.

"6… 5…" The man continued.

Sam finally came up with a idea, she wasn't sure it would work and it was really risky, if it didn't pan out the way she hoped they could all end up dead.

"4…"

Samantha looked back at Kate then slide her hand towards her thigh closer to her gun, none of the men had noticed as it was only the slightest movement. Sam widened her eye's at Kate then looked towards the man's crotch and back at her.

"3…"

Kate frowned she wasn't getting the hint. Samantha repeated the look this time with an expression which made her look as if she had just over strained herself trying to do something.

"2…"

Kate finally got the hint.

"1…"

Samantha gave the signal to move now with a nod. Kate nodded in return.

Samantha reached back and grabbed her piece. At the exact same moment Kate brought up her right leg with all the power she could muster and lodged her foot in between the man's two leg's. He howled with pain, when his finger hit the trigger, luckily he had started to fall already and the bullet skimmed Kate's head and hit the window behind her, as he continued to fall he dropped his piece. Sam had brought out her gun and aimed it at another man whilst standing quickly.

Kate closed her eyes and waited for the bullet to hit her. She heard the window behind her smash and let her breath out whilst looking behind her. Then she grabbed the man's gun, jumped to her feet and stood by Sam who was pointing her gun at one of the three men left standing, Kate with her two guns pointed at the other two.

"Look what happened" Samantha said looking at the three men standing.

"Tragic" Kate agreed.

"Who the hell are you?" One of the standing men said.

"The people who are gonna put ass behind bars" Samantha concluded for them. "Now drop your weapons, put your hands on your head and kneel on the floor"

At that moment the door burst from it's hinges and fell to the floor making a massive banging sound. Then Jack, Martin, Danny and Vivian rushed in guns aimed in front of them.

The four agents stopped in their tracks to see Sam and Kate standing their ground with guns pointed at the kidnappers.

"We're here to save you" Danny said as he viewed the situation.

"Oh great thanks, I mean a couple more seconds I think we would have really lost control on the situation" Samantha replied sarcastically.

"Well erm, good work you two" Jack said walking over to the young blonde tied to the chair.

Martin looked up to the ceiling and the panels of metal on the floor "Looks like you two really made an entrance"

"We try" Kate replied helping Viv cuff one of the four.

Jack untied the woman's hands and took the gag from her mouth.

"Thank you, thank you so much. I didn't think anyone was going to find me" She said with tears in her eyes.

"Did they hurt you? Are you alright?" Jack asked scanning her body.

She shook her head "No I'm fine"

"Alright, well then I guess I should take you back to your father"

She nodded "Yes please"

He guided her from the building and into the car.

Ten minutes later three city police cars arrived and took the four men away, there was plenty of swearing and threats but the agents ignored them, it wasn't like they hadn't heard it all before.

One of the men stuck his head from the window, "Jack Malone?"

Jack stopped, turned to face him "Yeh?"

"People who know me call me Striker. You know why?"

"Why don't you enlighten me" Jack folded his arms.

"Because I strike down whoever gets in my way no matter what and I can tell you now you're gonna regret ever dealing with this case, I promise you now. I will get out of this mess and when I do I can promise you I will hunt down each and every one of your team and make sure they suffer in the most inhuman way I can possibly do"

"And I promise you, you threaten me or my team again I will make it my personal mission to hire some one else in jail to make you their special play toy for as long as you are in there. Do you hear me?" Jack had his hand squeezing around the man's jaw who just smiled and laughed at the threat. The police car began to drive away "See you soon Malone!" He called from the window.

Jack stood by his team as they watched the car drive away.

The man that had been making the threat was the one that held the gun to Kate's head demanding a reason why not to shoot her from Samantha.

"You reckon he means it?" Kate asked leaning over to Vivian.

"I've never seen Jack fail to deliver a promise" she replied watching the car in the distance

"I didn't mean Jack I meant that guy, Rod Moore, do you think he'll get away from going to jail?"

"Highly doubtful, he was found in possession of a missing person, possession of a firearm without license and threatened to shoot two FBI agents"

Kate considered for a moment "Good point"

Martin opened the car door "What you up to tonight then, seeing your woman?"

Danny climbed into the other side "Yeh, taking her out for a meal to make up for last night"

"Oh yeh, your anniversary meal you never turned up to. How'd she take it?"

"Not as well as I had hoped but it worked out alright in the end"

"So are you ever gonna tell me her name?" Martin asked as he turned the engine on waiting for Samantha and Vivian to get in the back.

"You know her name" Danny was sure he had said it at one point or another.

"Danny if I knew her name then I wouldn't be calling her 'The woman' would I?"

"Mona, her name's Mona" Danny said

Martin raised his eyebrows and smiled, he was happy Danny had found some one who made him happy, he deserved it, now all he had to do was find some one who made himself just as happy.

Vivian and Samantha got into the back of the car, Kate and Jack were going to take Mr. Heifer's daughter back to him then meet the rest at the office.

"I think you are totally wrong" Sam protested as she sat down.

"Why, you two have been out that many times there must be something wrong with him" Vivian said raising her eyebrows and looking at Samantha who had blushed a little in the cheeks.

"Who's this?" Martin asked turning away from the building.

"Samantha and Keller, she's seeing him again tonight" Vivian explained

"There's nothing wrong with him" Sam repeated

"Maybe he's no good in bed" Danny said. The car fell silent and all three looked at Sam.

She crossed her arms in protest "I'm not discussing this with you lot"

"Why not? I mean we're like one big family, you should be able to discuss anything with us Sam" Danny said

"Alright then Danny I'll tell you if you tell us what that message left on your phone a couple of weeks ago was about and who she was"

Danny fell silent and thought for a moment, it was the message Kate had overheard when she had been working early "No comment" That was one memory he was desperate to forget, not wanting to discuss it.

"But Danny, we're like one big family" Samantha teased.

He mimicked her voice and what she said sarcastically "But Danny, we're like one big family"

Vivian sat their and laughed at herself "Your lives all seem so complicated with dating, at least I'm set and happy with my husband. So what about you Martin anyone you seeing?"

"None at present" he replied taking a turn.

"What happened to that really hot blonde?" Danny asked recalling seeing one at Martin's apartment when he called round a few weeks ago.

"She found out about brunette" He replied plainly.

Danny recalled Martin once saying he couldn't keep two women going for two weeks without blowing his cover and one finding out about the other, he had said this when they had been sent to San Diego. (Season one, Silent Partner)

"See that's what I don't understand, why go and spoil a relationship with on person with another person when you're happy" Vivian said expecting an answer from one of the other three agents.

They all fell silent, all of them had cheated at least once, Danny and Martin numerous times, they were men what could anyone expect and Sam a year ago with Jack on his wife.

"Oh, I'll take that as a no comment as well then shall I?" Vivian said.

Still no answer.

"Obviously then" she said quietly to herself.

Then didn't talk much after that, then arrived back at the office and started on their report for their latest case. Jack and Kate return about an hour after them.

Vivian sat at her desk and looked at the time, 4:28pm. It was time to go home and do what she had promised. She tided away some things on her desk, tucked her gun in her drawer then pulled her jacket on.

"You going?" Asked Sam after watching Viv pack her stuff.

"Yeh, I have a promise to keep" She replied.

"And what's that?" Samantha asked curiously.

"To go and decorate my son's room"

"Oh, what a way to spend your Sunday night"

"I know. Anyway have a good night tonight with Keller" Vivian smiled and turned to leave the floor.

Sam smiled weakly to herself, she had spent all day convincing herself that she did want to go out with Keller tonight, but she was having a hard time doing so. If she was to be honest Keller wasn't the man she wanted, the man she wanted was some one she couldn't have, and that's the way it was. She sighed then turned to look at her other team mates. Each had their head down writing their own reports on what had happened during this case. Only none of them knew that this case was only the start to something much bigger to come, something not one of them would be able to deal with nor cope with, the start to something which would cause much pain and grief amongst them.

Half past six Jack looked at his watch. He had just finished his paperwork, well the top piece of paperwork from the large pile he had sitting on his desk. He turned and look across the floor to his team who were still working, all but Vivian who had left a couple of hours ago. He took off his glasses and folded them on his desk, he picked up his suit jacket which was hanging on the back of his chair then walked out from his office and across the floor to his team.

"Alright, why don't you all go home now" He said standing in the middle of them.

"We're not meant to finish till seven but I'm not complaining" Danny said standing from his chair.

"I'll see you all tomorrow" Jack said, he turned to leave before taking one last look at Sam. He closed his eyes remembering her scent, the touch of her skin, the smell of her hair. He had heard from Vivian that she was going out with Keller tonight, images of her and Keller together instantly shot into his mind. He tried to shake the thought from his head but he couldn't. The thought of Keller touching her bare skin instead of him, kissing, laughing, spending a hot passionate night together sickened him to the pit of his stomach. He longed for her, just for one last night together, if not forever. Why he ended it? He himself had no idea. That was one of the first things he regretted in his life. He knew although it killed him to admit he did the right thing, no matter how strongly he felt for her, or she felt for him they wouldn't be able to make it work whilst working in the same team. They both loved their job so much they wouldn't be able to ask the other to give it up. Sam caught his gaze and held it for a moment before he hung his head, slipped his hands into his pockets and walked away.

Martin walked over by Kate's side "So where'd you wanna go for a drink?"

She looked down at her clothes then back at him "Well actually I was kind of hoping I could go home for a shower first."

He looked her up and down, falling through the vent shaft had gotten her pretty dirty, dust in her hair, black marks over her clothes, couple of off coloured marks across her face too. Sam also had these. He nodded "Alright, go and shower then I'll meet you about eightish at a little bar called Frankie's, you know where that is?" He asked

She nodded "I've never been before but I know where it is yeh".

"Great see you in a bit"

She flashed him a smile then grabbed her jacket and took off. With the spare hour and half he had he decided he should probably go home and shower first too. He went to leave when he was joined by Danny who walked by his side.

"You doing anything tonight?" Martin asked pressing the elevator button.

"Taking Mona out for dinner to make up for last night"

"You gonna turn up to this one?" Martin joked.

"Very funny. What about you, what you doing tonight?"

"Just going out for a couple of drinks with Kate" he replied plainly.

"As in a date?" Danny smiled to one side.

"No, as in two friends going out for a couple of drinks." He explained.

"So… you don't have any feelings for Kate then? As in other then friendly feelings like you have for the rest of us"

Martin raised his eyebrows and looked a Danny "No, I don't have any feelings for Kate"

Danny studied Martin's face for a second "You know the best thing about being your best mate is being able to tell when you're lying. You're totally into her aren't yah"

Martin laughed quietly then smiled to himself trying to ignore Danny.

Danny carried on "Oh come one, I've seen the way you two act around each other, the odd compliment, the little smiles, the buying each other drinks and food when you nip out, the teasing, the checking out of the other one as they walk away, the instant interest as you find out the other one is currently seeing someone, the quick glances to see what the other one is doing, the way you always seem to get paired together on a case, the way the two of you dance around the one another when on a case. And don't think I didn't see you watch her with that guy she was dancing with last night, then up together alone on the balcony. But going out for drinks alone…"

"You finished?" Martin asked pressing the elevator button again.

"Pretty much" Danny nodded.

Martin went to reply as the elevator doors opened at the exact moment revealing a flushed Cindy standing in it.

"Oh Martin, I was actually on my way up here to talk to you" She said

"Now? I was actually on my way home, can't we do this tomorrow?" He asked as Danny walked into the elevator.

"But you said this morning we could talk tonight" she pushed. Cindy was fully aware that Martin was going home to get ready for going out with Kate, something she wanted to try and prevent from happening.

"Oh yeh, I'm sorry, sure we can talk" He went to turn to go back to his desk.

"Actually could we talk downstairs in the forensics lab, I could do with a hand as well moving some things?" Danny noticed her playing with the bottom of her top, a sign of nervousness.

"Erm… Sure" Martin joined the other two in the elevator the got off on the forensics level before saying bye to Danny.

Jack opened the door to his place switched on the TV, pulled a beer from the fridge and collapsed on the couch. He flicked through the channels trying to find something which interested him, but the only thing he could think about was Detective Keller touching Samantha's body. He cursed himself for thinking about Sam again, every time he did it brought back memories of how happy he was with her.

Kate entered her apartment, chucked her keys on the glass table then walked through the apartment checking for any signs of her room mate. No one home. She poured herself a glass of water and grabbed a doughnut from the paper bag on the kitchen counter. Then she went into the bathroom and turned the water on, whilst letting it heat up she took off her clothes and wrapped a bathrobe around herself. She tested the water, perfect, she went to take her robe off when she heard a knock at the door. She tied her robe back on and walked across to open the door. She opened it to see a man standing on the other side, maybe her height or a little shorter, glasses, quite spotty skin, short black hair, well dressed, reminded her of the nerds from high school.

"Hi, can I help you?" she asked curiously.

He stretched his arm out and lent against the door frame. "Caitlin Valentine?"

She instantly recognised the voice "Who wants to know?" it was the man from the masquerade party.

"My names Joseph Stansfield, it's a pleasure to meet you" He took her right hand and kissed it gently, she felt odd and pulled her robe tighter around her body.

"As in Stansfield and sons, the company that owns the line of hotels and restaurants?"

"The one and only. I would be one of the sons"

She wasn't sure how to reply to that, so she just smiled slightly.

"I know this seems a little weird me coming to your apartment but you really caught my attention last night, and then when we danced I felt some sparks between us so I was wondering if I could take you out to dinner sometime"

She stood there blankly, she couldn't believe she had a millionaire standing there asking her out and all she could think was that she was sure he was taller and better built last night and how much better looking he was the previous night.

He wasn't really sure how to take her blank expression "Should I take that as a yes or no?"

She opened her mouth to speak then closed it again. His smiled dropped slightly and she felt bad for him, he had come all this way to her apartment to ask her out for dinner and all her got for an answer was a blank face. "Sure, why not. Dinner sounds great" she gave in and told him she'd go, she tried to sound happy about it.

"Oh thank god I was so sure you were going to say no, I mean I may be rich but sometimes girls say no because of how I look and because of my interests"

"Don't thank god yet" She said under her breath.

"Sorry?"

Shit, cover that quickly "I was just wondering when you wanted to go out"

"Do you have plans tonight?" he asked

"I'm going out with a friend tonight sorry"

"Well what about tomorrow night?"

She quickly racked her brains for something, she couldn't think of anything she had planned, Why can't I think of anything she thought to herself, she gave up "Tomorrows great" she tried to sound as excited as what he was.

"Excellent, I'll swing by tomorrow night to pick you up"

She faked a smile "Okay"

"Well then, good night"

"Good night" she replied.

He smiled then walked off down the hallway. She closed the door and lent against it and closed her eyes and sighed, not exactly what she wanted to do tomorrow night but never mind, it was only one dinner, one night, one time. She bit her lip and walked back towards the bathroom for a shower whilst rubbing her forehead.

Sam slipped on a light blue thin sweat top and a pair of jeans then walked into the living room where she picked up her ringing cell phone.

"Hello?" she answered

"Hey Sam, it's Keller" he said on the other end.

"You alright?" she asked

"Yeh I'm fine it's just I've been called into work so…"

"So you can't make tonight" she finished for him.

"Yeh I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you"

"You best do" She heard a laugh on the other end then hung up. She was relieved yet disappointed at the same time. True Keller wasn't her first choice as a partner, maybe her second but she did need a night out, a little fun, which she knew she was going to get with him. Oh well she thought to herself. Only minutes after getting dressed she got undressed from her going out clothes and into her sweat pants and baggy top, made herself a mug of coffee and flicked the TV on to see a chick flick just beginning.

Danny dressed in his suit and tie, gelled the hair, splash of aftershave, brushed his teeth then smiled at himself in the mirror, he had spent the day looking forward to spending a nice quiet night with Mona and he wanted to prove tonight just how much he loved her, in a physical way of course.

He switched his lights off, closed the door then jumped down the stairs into his car and drove further up New York to the edge of Manhattan where Mona would be waiting in her apartment for him. He turned right and parked his car at the side of the street. He climbed from his car and walked up to the front of the building where the doorman opened it for him.

"Good evening Mr. Taylor" He said politely. Danny had been around a lot lately, so much that the doorman even knew his name.

"Hey Joe" Danny replied and passed across to the elevator where he waited until he reached the ninth floor. He made his way down the hallway until he came to apartment twenty.

He knocked on the door twice then waited as he heard foot steps closing towards the door.

Mona opened the door and lent against it, then smiled at her boyfriend, whose mouth dropped open at the sight of her.

Danny's eyes were wide open along with his mouth. He began to drool. He looked at his girlfriend who was wearing a little red corset, black stockings, a black feather boa around her neck, bright red lipstick and little heels. She licked her lips then pressed herself against him. She kissed his cheek gently then moved across to his ear.

Danny closed his eyes as she stroked his torso with her hand. He felt an instant tightness in his trousers around his crotch. Mona lowered her hand down there and smiled when she realised she had got him excited already.

"Danny" She said gently into his ear.

He struggled to speak "Yeh?"

"You're drooling" She stated as she looked into his eyes.

He wiped his mouth "I take it we're not going to dinner then?" He asked as he placed his hands on her hips.

"Good guess"

Danny walked forward gently pushing her backwards against a wall and shut the door behind him. She laughed a little. Then he slipped his tongue into her mouth and tasted her like he had longed for all day. Her tongue massaged his and vice versa. She slipped her hands to the front of his jacket and pulled it off of him. Then lowered them to undo the buckle on his belt. He pressed his pelvis against hers and pinned her arms to the wall. He slipped his lips down from her mouth and onto her neck, she moaned with pleasure. He let her arms fall freely then pulled one of her legs up and she wrapped it around his waist followed by the other. He used his hands to undo the lace on the back of her corset, when finished he pulled the clothing away from her body, leaving the top of her body completely naked. He carried her away from the wall next to the front door and into the bedroom where he lay her on the bed. She lay still, breathing deeply trying to catch her breath from the past few minutes of excitement. He slipped off her shoes and pulled the stockings from the legs. She was entirely naked, lying there waiting for him to give her entire bodily pleasure. She looked into his eyes and could tell that he was excited about what was going to happen as what she was. She climbed to her knees on the bed and was almost level with his height. She unbuttoned his shirt as quickly as she could before ripping it off him. Then she lowered her hands and unzipped his trousers, kissing just above his trouser line. As she slipped his trousers down he ran his fingers through her hair, smiling with pleasure. Within seconds he was also undressed, he pushed her against the bed and fell on top of her. Their lips locked again kissing at a fast constant rhythm. She pressed her hands against his back pressing him harder against him, then enjoyed the rest of their time together as he slowly penetrated her pelvis giving her instant pleasure.

Martin carried the last box into the forensic safe and placed it to the ground round the back.

Cindy followed him into the safe and quickly pulled the door shut behind her. He had his back to the door for only seconds when he heard it slam behind him. He turned quickly on his heels to see Cindy standing in front of the safe door.

"What happened?" Martin asked quickly noticing that Cindy wasn't even trying to open the door.

"The door shut behind me" she explained

He walked towards it "Then we'll just open it again, simple as" He went to push the door and it didn't open.

"The handle for this side fell off the other day" She said walking up beside him.

"And you didn't think to put it back on?" He tried again harder pushing the door, he was getting frustrated.

"Look, I'm sorry but I didn't think a couple of days would matter"

"HEY, OPEN THE DOOR" he shouted smacking his hands against it.

"It's not worth it Marin no one else is in the lab tonight and the safe is sound proof" Cindy said touching his arm.

"So how are we meant to get out then?" He said moving away from her and resting his hands on his waist.

"We just have to wait for some one else to open it"

"And when's that going to be?"

"No one else is working tonight, so probably in the morning"

"So we have to spend the whole night in here?" He couldn't believe it.

"Why, do you have a problem with me?" She asked seeming hurt.

"What? No it's not you. I'm just meant to meet some one tonight is all" he explained.

"Who?" Cindy pretended to be clueless.

"Kate and instead I'm stuck in a safe for the night" He answered folding his arms

"Why don't you call her?" She already knew he hadn't got his cell on him.

He went to grab it from his waist and realised it wasn't there, he sighed "I left it on my coat on the table in the lab. I can't even call her to let her know I won't make it" He leaned his head against the wall and rubbed the back of his neck.

"I'm sure she'll understand" Cindy rubbed his back gently and smiled weakly, secretly inside she was so happy she had prevented Martin from seeing Kate tonight, after a couple of drinks who knew what the two could end up doing.

He walked away from her and frowned, then sat on a box in the corner. "Well then I guess all we can do is sit and wait"

"At least we have each other" Cindy sat by his side.

"Great" Martin said under his breath.

Kate sat at the bar and looked at the clock on the wall which read 8:35pm. She sighed and ran he hands through her hair then leant her head in her hands.

The bar tender walked up in front of her, he took her empty glass "You want another orange juice or you want an alcoholic drink this time?"

He was short, medium sized, wearing a white tank top and a thin green shirt, and a little bit of thin brown hair surrounding his bald head. He hadn't shave in a few days and had the lines around his eyes and mouth showing his age, late forties.

"Ah, what the hell looks like I've been stood up so I'll have a vodka"

"Vodka it is then" He brought a small shot glass and a bottle of vodka on the bar. He poured the shot glass full of vodka and pushed it towards her. She raised her eyebrows at him and pushed it back, and pulled the bottle towards her.

"I think you got that the wrong way round." She put the shot of vodka in his hands "You can have that on me"

He smiled and downed the shot whilst she took a swig from the bottle, after pulling a disgusted face from the taste, the man smiled at her.

"So who stood you up then" He asked throwing a towel over his shoulder and leaning against the bar.

"A work mate" she took another swig "So much for FBI agents being reliable hey?"

He paused "FBI, you must be talking about Mr. Martin Fitzgerald"

"You know him?" She asked raising her eyebrows.

"Yeh he comes in every now and then, he seems like a decent guy"

She just smiled and nodded, moments later she brought out her cell and dialled his number, all she got was voicemail.

"You gonna take off then? I mean what's the point in staying if you can't find where he is" He asked

"He might just be running late, I'll give it another ten minutes".

The bar tender looked at the clock on the wall reading 11:56pm, he walked back over to the bar where Kate was sitting, well lying her head on the bar, playing with peanuts from the bowl, blowing them backwards and forwards.

"You still waiting for him then, you must be really good friends"

Kate just about lifted her head from the bar, with a paper packet stuck to the side of her face and handed him an empty bowl. "You're all out of peanuts"

He took the bowl and then the vodka bottle which only had literally drops left in it. She clung onto the bottle and held it tightly.

"I think you should leave the drink now" He pulled harder snatching it from her hands.

"Hey, hey, hey, excuse me, I am a paying c-c-customer, and I p-p-paid for your bottle of vodkaaaa" she waved a finger at him.

"Yeh and you are also smashed, I'm cutting you off" He walked round to the other side of the bar and helped her down from her seat.

"Cutting me o-off? Did it hurt?" She looked puzzled.

"No, don't worry, but I think it's time you go home, sleep it off yeh?"

"I think you should go home" she grabbed a door for balance. He walked her out to the street.

"Yeh I will if you do"

She looked up into his eyes "A-alright" She waited a moment "Say bye"

"Bye" He replied

"Bye" she repeated and turned and wobbled off.

The tender watched her attempt to walk off using everything in sight for guidance. He shook his head and walked back into his bar hoping she would make it back home safely.

Martin sat against the wall, head back, eyes closed thinking, just thinking about whatever popped into his head, mostly about what Danny had said earlier about him and Kate, maybe he was right. Maybe him and Kate were getting closer but he was sure that she didn't feel the same way, or if she did she wasn't showing as feelings to hint as such, or was she?

He heard a noise which disrupted his thoughts. It was the noise of metal rubbing against metal, then seconds later the door opened and a young man stood there with a clip board in a white coat staring at the two of them.

Martin shot up from the floor and ran over to the door, he patted the man on the back "Finally, if you weren't a guy I could kiss you" Then he grabbed his cell and jacket and took off. He flipped his cell open to find three missed calls from Kate and a message saying 'Where are you?'. He rubbed his forehead wondering what to do, he shoved his jacket on and decided he'd head for the bar encase she was still there, it was probably very unlikely but he best check.

Cindy watched Martin run off, he didn't even say bye, too busy checking to see if Kate had called and off to see her. Cindy's face went green with envy and she felt a slight anger build up inside of her. She had hoped to spend the whole night together, although they hadn't really talked much in the couple of hours, she hadn't planned what to say.

Sam lay in her bed tapping her fingers on the sheets trying to get to sleep, she had been trying for the last hour or so and was having no luck. She rolled over and looked at her alarm clock, it read 12:23am.

She sighed and turned over to try and sleep again when she heard a knock at the door.

"Who the hell?" She said quietly to herself.

She climbed out of bed and walked over to her front door, she opened it up to see and tired Jack standing on the other side.

"Hi" He said, he sounded tired.

"Hey" she replied, she looked confused at the situation.

He had spent all night since he had gotten home about her and Keller together and he needed to know if they had been together the thought of it had been driving him crazy. He had resisted the urge from coming over for hours and yet here he was, at her front door.

"Keller here?" He asked looking behind Sam into her apartment.

She shook her head "He cancelled, work"

"Oh" He replied plainly, there was an awkward moment of silent which left them staring into each other's eyes.

"Jack, it's half twelve, what do you want" She asked slowly folding arms, she felt nervous.

He wasn't sure how to answer that, whether to tell her the truth, or make up some kind of lie to why he was here.

"Jack, What you want?" She repeated.

This time he couldn't hold the answer in any longer "You" he replied staring into her eyes.

* * *

**Quick question:** Does anyone actually like where this is actually going or do you think i should do something else? 


End file.
